One of the greatest of all comic operas, Barber is gloriously funny and pure joy as music theater. It's the backstory for The Marriage of Figaro, when the young Count was first in love with Rosina and Figaro helped things along. Hugh Russell (the father in Beauty and the Beast) will be Figaro, and Kate Lindsey (Stefano in Romeo and Juliet) is Rosina. The colorful Spanish twenties-style production will be entertainment for the whole family.

"Hansel and Gretel is not just a children's opera," the New York Times wrote, "although the many children in the audience seemed enthralled...It is also an artwork very much for adults." Or as another critic said, "it is no more a children's opera than Alice in Wonderland is a child's book." With gorgeous music and enchanting sets and costumes, Hansel will be an evening of wonder and delight for children of all ages.

Composer Michael Berkeley has transformed one of the best-loved Victorian novels into a spellbinding chamber opera. A strong, passionate young woman becomes a governess and falls deeply in love with her employer; her story is sketched in dreamlike sequences which focus on Jane and Mr. Rochester and the madwoman upstairs at Thornfield Hall. With soprano Kelly Kaduce (the unforgettable Sister Angelica in 2004) in the title role, Jane Eyre will be a powerful evening in the theater.

Based on Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with lyrics by poet Langston Hughes, Kurt Weill's brilliant Street Scene was a hit on Broadway and went on to great success on opera stages everywhere. A nostalgic, tuneful portrait of New York in the twenties, Weill called it a "dramatic musical," then a "Broadway opera" and finally "an American opera." Staged by the team that created our stunning Nixon in China, Street Scene will be a colorful showcase for a large cast including many of OTSL's Gerdine Young Artists. Jennifer Aylmer* and Garrett Sorenson* make OTSL debuts, with Jeffrey Wells and former Gerdine Young Artist Carolyn Betty returning.