World Premiere Jazz Opera Opens 40th Season of Pittsburgh Festival Opera

Kicking off its 40th season of innovative and intimate opera and music events, Pittsburgh Festival Opera expands to a six-week season in multiple venues in 2017. Opening on June 15 with the world premiere of its commissioned jazz opera A Gathering of Sons, the acclaimed American summer opera festival also presents Handel's Xerxes, Richard Strauss' Intermezzo, and Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street on the Mainstage in Falk Auditorium, Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh thriving East End.

Opera sung in English and a Broadway musical are joined by a four-day Discover Strauss series, a new revue of Rodgers and Hammerstein music, concerts of music by Leonard Cohen and Strauss, Hansel and Gretel for families, Mozart by Moonlight, and late night cabarets.

Now established as the go-to midsummer performing arts option for intimate audience experiences, PFO is the realization of Artistic and General Director Jonathan Eaton's vision to fill a classical music and opera void in the summer arts landscape. He says, "We are thrilled that audiences and critics support us as a cherished addition to the summer cultural calendar. We continue to produce our mix of new operas, rarely-performed works, and reinvented classics with passion and commitment."

This season Eaton stages both Intermezzo and Hansel and Gretel and will be among the Festival artists participating in the Discover Strauss events, along with company founder Mildred Miller Posvar.