Des Moines Metro Opera Announces 2021 Festival With Health And Safety Protocols

Des Moines Metro Opera has unveiled the repertory for its 2021 Summer Festival Season alongside detailed health and safety protocols the organization has implemented to ensure a safe return to the stage this summer for artists, audiences, and all who interact with DMMO.

The 2021 Summer Festival Season, which runs July 2 through July 25, features mainstage performances of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's haunting drama, The Queen of Spades, and Jean-Philippe Rameau's cheeky Baroque comedy Platée, as well as Gregory Spears's and Greg Pierce's Fellow Travelers and The John Holiday Experience, a special concert featuring countertenor John Holiday, as part of the Company's 2nd Stages Series.

Developed in conjunction with its Medical Advisory Panel, Des Moines Metro Opera has announced three major health and safety initiatives to allow live opera to safely return to the stage this summer. First, all 225 company members (singers, apprentice artists, orchestra, production, and administrative staff) will have completed a COVID-19 vaccination series prior to their arrival in Indianola. "We are proud to take this bold, progressive step in partnership with Governor Kim Reynolds, the Iowa Department of Public Health, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and Hy-Vee Indianola," said General and Artistic Director Michael Egel. "This critical step has made it possible for us to envision and implement a safe return to the stage." In addition to a distanced, reduced-capacity theatre, DMMO will also require all audience members to present either record of a negative COVID test within 72 hours of the performance or record of vaccination prior to attending any opera event. Additionally, Des Moines Metro Opera has partnered with Simpson College and Waldinger Corporation to install supplemental air exchange systems that will provide increased ventilation air into the theater at more than 3 times industry minimum requirements. Complete details of DMMO's health and safety protocols can be found on the Company's website.

The productions of Sweeney Todd, Platée and The Queen of Spades will be performed in rotating repertory in Pote Theatre at the Blank Performing Arts Center in Indianola, Iowa. Fellow Travelers will be presented at the historic Hoyt Sherman Place theater in downtown Des Moines, and The John Holiday Experience will be performed at Sheslow Auditorium on the campus of Drake University. Each opera of the festival will be performed with English supertitles projected above the stage. The Des Moines Metro Opera Festival Orchestra, made up of professional musicians from across the country, will accompany all three mainstage productions and Fellow Travelers.

Tickets to the 2021 Summer Festival Season go on sale June 1. To purchase tickets or for more information about the summer festival, visit desmoinesmetroopera.org or call 515-961-6221.