Mainstage Production - The Bartered Bride 

Music by Bedřich Smetana

Text by Karel Sabina

Performances:

Friday, November 5^th - 7:30pm

Sunday, November 7^th - 3:00pm

Friday, November 12^th - 7:30pm

Sunday, November 14^th - 3:00pm

Smetana’s beloved, light-hearted opera takes the stage in a bold new concept as part of a UNT  festival of Czech music. The action is transported from Czechia to Praha, Texas, at the end of the nineteenth century. A community of Czech-Texan immigrant farmers is caught up in a conflict over a traditional arranged marriage, with an old-world contract, versus the new-world romantic  yearnings of free-spirited young love. Sung in a mixture of languages, the older generation argues in Czech while the youngsters make love in English. It all comes to a hilarious climax in the middle of a circus – or is it a state fair?! – driven by the most glorious folk-inspired music ever to grace the opera stage.  

We are honored to welcome Jaroslav Kyzlink, one of the world’s leading interpreters of Czech repertoire, who joins us to direct the music for this production. 

Due to COVID regulations, all events may be adjusted, revised, or canceled in accordance with current Covid health conditions.

Please check back for a link to purchase your tickets. 

Sung in English and Czech.

​Later this Season:

Student Directors Scenes Program

Party with Puccini! Excerpts from operas by Giacomo Puccini directed and performed by UNT Opera students. 

Performance: February 6th at 3:00pm 

Admission is free.

Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

​Mainstage Production - L’Elisir d’Amore

Music by Gaetano Donizetti 

In this delightful love story, traditional roles in romance seem to be reversed: badass heroine  Norina is clearly in charge, and she rejects the machismo advances of the braggart sergeant  Belcore in favor of wimp-turned-lyrical-lover-boy Nemorino. And the elixir of love itself – is it a  fake, or does it work?! Try a bottle and see… 

In-Person Performances March 3, 4, 5 at 7:30pm, March 6 at 3:00pm

Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Mainstage Production - The Rape of Lucretia

A Moral Allegory

Music by Benjamin Britten

Text by Ronald Duncan

One of the great opera composers of the twentieth century, Benjamin Britten was also a pacifist,  a conscientious objector, a homosexual, and a committed Christian. This classical story of the rape of the faithful wife Lucretia by the warrior prince Tarquinius premiered in 1946 shortly after the horrors of World War II. In Britten’s treatment it becomes an exploration of moral bonds broken by horrific violence, of spiritual connection shattered, and of guilt by association:  the narrators of the story, a male and female ‘chorus’, start out as commentators, but end up feeling implicated, and by the end become a voice of Christian conscience for the crime that has been committed. And so this modern masterpiece takes the actions of individuals and translates them onto moral, social, and spiritual planes. The Rape of Lucretia is a modern classic and treats its difficult subject matter with exquisite sensitivity, and at a time when the power dynamics and moralities of relationships between men and women are being re-examined, it is a  must-see operatic event.  

After each performance audience members are invited to remain for a talkback session with cast members and a panel to discuss issues raised by the opera.

In-Person Performances April 21, 22, 23 at 7:30pm, April 24 at 3:00pm 

Sung in English.