Opera Philadelphia

After three seasons of reduced programming due to the covid-19 pandemic, Opera Philadelphia had its first full season of live performances. Programming included festival o22, the relaunch of its multi-venue urban Opera festival that was postponed in 2020 and 2021.festival 2o22 rossini's otello (academy of music), featuring lawrence brownlee (rodrigo), khanyiso gwenxane (otello), daniela mack (desdemona), alek shrader (iago), sun-ly pierce (emilia), christian purcell (elmiro), and aaron crouch (gondoliere), directed by emilio sagi and conducted by corrado rovaris. Toshio hosokawa's the raven (miller theater), starring mezzo-soprano kristen choi, directed by aria umezawa and conducted by eiki isomura. The Opera was paired with a prelude of immersive audience experiences linked to the raven, created in collaboration with the obvious agency devised theatre group. David t. little's black lodge (Philadelphia film center), a world premiere film screening that featured live music from principal artists timur & the dime museum alongside musicians from the Opera Philadelphia orchestra, directed by michael joseph mcquilken. Opera on film (Philadelphia film center), a series of 12 screenings of more than 30 cinematic operas film shorts and features. Afternoons at ava (academy of vocal arts), an intimate recital series featuring ava alumni and current students. The Opera in the park series of free, open to the public outdoor Opera screenings in diverse neighborhoods across Philadelphia. The season continued with the winter/spring season of productions in the academy of music: in february 2023, a concert presentation of orff's carmina burana, one of the most popular pieces in the choral canon, paired with a margaret bonds' credo, a rarely performed masterpiece setting of a w.e.b. Dubois poem by one of the most prominent black women composers of the 20th century, featuring soprano brandie suton, tenor alisdair kent, and baritone ethan vincent along with the Opera Philadelphia chorus and orchestra, conducted by lina gonzlez-granados. In april/may 2023, puccini's la bohme, in a new interpretation that presents the Opera in reverse order, act by act. Directed by yuval sharon and conducted by corrado rovaris, with tenor joshua blue (rodolfo), soprano kara goodrich (mimi), baritone troy cook (marcello), soprano melissa joseph (museta), baritone benjamin taylor (schaunard), bass adam lau (colline), and bass frank mitchell (alcindoro), with anthony martinez-briggs in the non- speaking role of the wanderer.

In march 2023, Opera Philadelphia's celebrated 10 years of the composer in residence program with a composers celebration concert, with performances of the works of all eight cirs: lembit beecher, courtney bryan (current), david hertzberg, david t. little, missy mazzoli, andrew norman, rene orth, and tyshawn sorey (current).opera Philadelphia continued to offer its signature youth initiatives programming to provide arts education and access to the arts for the region's students. The company was able to return to in-person programming for all programming streams.

Original digital Opera programming on the Opera Philadelphia channel included:- black lodge streaming premiere- paper tiger, a new short-work in the digital commissions series by black transdisciplinary artist yaz lancaster, reflecting on nearly a decade of lancaster's identity as a queer person of color