***Co-presented by MassOpera and Live in Concert***
September 11-13, 2025 7:30 pm
Holden Experimental Theater, Amherst College: Amherst
-AND-
September 25 at 7:00 pm and September 26 at 7:30 pm
Maso Studio, Huntington Theatre: Boston
Do we own our memories?
The Onion is a new opera in which family secrets collide with a memory-enhancing AI. Through contact with their younger selves, its characters bring to the surface the experiences that have shaped their lives: a sexist theft of scientific work, the vanishing of a parent, the erasure of a gender identity. Will the intervention of an AI hurt or heal?
The opera unfolds on an island in the Pacific Northwest where a neuroscientist has sequestered herself with her daughter to create the Onion, an AI device that allows anyone using it to re-live a personal memory. Rounding out the human roles are the Onion’s young co-inventor and the neuroscientist’s ex-partner. The Onion itself is a character in the opera: its independence and influence on the human characters seem to grow each time they use it.
The Onion is a creation of composer/librettist Eric Sawyer and director/librettist Ron Bashford. The performance features a cast of five prominent Boston vocalists. The orchestra will be conducted by Ryan Turner, Music Director of Emmanuel Music.
Starring: Dana Lynne Varga, David Thomas Mather, David Small, Emma West, Ifeanyi Epum
Cover Cast: Kelsey Moisan, Joshua Dixon Belt, Harry Otera-Rivera, Cailin Smith, David Smith
Set and Lighting Design by: Matthew Richards
Costume Design by: Nora Smith
Alcina by G.F. Handel
June 27 and 28 2025 @ 7:30 PM, and June 29 2025 @ 2 PM
Lowe Auditorium | Arlington High School | Arlington, MA
Featuring Boston’s most talented singers and our Community & Youth Ensemble!
Alcina is a fantastically magical tale navigates complex love triangles, enchantments, seduction, and hidden identities. With electrifying vocal acrobatics woven throughout the score, this opera is sure to leave you spellbound.
MassOpera Party
March 7, 2025 | VIP Reception @ 6 PM | Main Event @ 7 PM
Club Café | The Moonshine Room | South End Boston
Featuring a drag queen emcee, singers from Alcina, and a special guest or two!
The MassOpera Party is back at Club Café’s Moonshine Room for an epic bash to help raise funds for MassOpera’s artistic and educational programs.! Join fellow board, staff, artists, audiences, and donors who support MassOpera for a celebration of music and community-building. Tickets are on sale now!
Cantos de mi Tierra
January 19, 2025 | 2 PM to 4:30 PM
North Shore Community Development Coalition Main Office | Salem, MA
MassOpera is proud to present an outreach concert featuring Latin American composers, lyricists, and performers at the North Shore Community Development Coalition in Salem, MA, in partnership with its subsidiary, the Punto Urban Art Museum, a social justice public art program for the North Shore. North Shore CDC works to improve the quality of life for residents in low-income, North Shore neighborhoods through affordable housing, economic development, community engagement, small business support, and public art projects.
Pride Trivia Cabaret
June 22, 2024 | 12 PM to 3 PM
Club Café | Moonshine Room | South End Boston
Not seen since 2019 we are bringing you MassOpera’s Trivia Cabaret for Pride. We are combining your favorite trivia cabaret with pride brunch, so grab a mimosa, listen to some sangin, and compete for trivia prizes! Presented in partnership with Opera On Tap Boston!
The Mirror Cabaret
May 10 – Doors Open @ 6 PM, Performance @ 8 PM
City Winery | Boston
Featuring 8 of Greater Boston’s best opera and musical theatre singers!
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome BACK to the Mirror Cabaret! We pair your favorite operas with your favorite musicals, based on the same source material. Think Madama Butterfly v. Miss Saigon and Eurydice vs Hadestown. Sip cocktails, nosh on delicious food and join us at City Winery next May!
MassOpera Party & New Opera Workshop
March 14, 2024 | VIP Reception @ 6 PM | Main Event @ 7 PM
Club Café | Moonshine Room | South End Boston
Featuring musical selections from Caravana de mujeres paired with an epic party only MassOpera can throw!
In the next phase of development of Caravana de mujeres, we present never before seen musical selections from this exciting and new romantic/comedic opera and throw in an epic bash to help raise funds for MassOpera’s artistic and educational programs.
The Magic Flute
May 12 to May 21
The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University
New English Translation: Kelley Rourke
Conductor: Dr. Lisa Graham, Stage Director: Pascale Florestal
MassOpera proudly presents a new English translation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The planet is in crisis. Three young seekers are drawn into an age-old cosmic battle, in which each side blames the other for the fate of the planet. Through a series of trials, our heroes’ only hope is through shattering the binary of good vs evil.
The Mirror Cabaret
May 6 – Doors Open @ 6 PM, Performance @ 8 PM
City Winery, Boston MA
Music Directors: Austin Davy & Christina Wright-Ivanova, Stage Director: Cassandra Lovering
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to the Mirror Cabaret! We pair your favorite operas with your favorite musicals, based on the same source material. Think La Boheme v. Rent and Romeo et Juliette v. West Side Story. Sip cocktails, nosh on delicious food and join us at City Winery in May!
La Traviata
October 17 – 24 – Various Performances and Times
Eustis Estate Museum in Milton, MA
Conductor: Daniel P. Ryan, Stage Director: Katy Early
MassOpera welcomes you back to our first live production in nearly 2 years! Join us for an immersive, site-specific production of Verdi’s classic opera, as the Eustis Estate comes alive through the storytelling of our magnificent performers! Tickets on sale 8/17!
Freedom Ride
Sunday, November 3rd @ 3 PM
The Strand Theatre | Dorchester
Composer & Librettist: Dan Shore
MassOpera is thrilled to introduce its 2nd New Opera Workshop with a performance of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. This performance is in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theatre in preparation for their world premiere of the fully staged opera in February 202o in Chicago.
Die Fledermaus
Friday April 5 to Saturday April 13 Various Times
Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts
Composer: Johann Strauss
Librettist: Sarah Ina Meyers
In this updated new English translation, Die Fledermaus is set in NYC in the present-day with social media influences and reality TV stars taking center stage. Join us for a raucous immersive theatrical experience that is equal parts opera and party!
Taking Up Serpents
Deane Hall at the Calderwood Pavillion
at the Boston Center for the Arts
Composer: Kamala Sankaram, Librettist: Jerre Dye
MassOpera is thrilled to introduce its inaugural New Opera Workshop with a performance of Taking Up Serpents. This performance is in collaboration with Washington National Opera in preparation for their world premiere of the fully staged opera in January 2019 at the Kennedy Center.
