Single Tickets Go On Sale For The Second Half Of Michigan Opera Theatre's 2021-22 Season

The intermission is officially over; opera and dance are on their way back to the Detroit Opera House.

Single tickets for Michigan Opera Theatre's spring season will go on sale to the public on Thursday, October 21 at noon ET. Tickets can be purchased here.

"Act I: Out and About," Michigan Opera Theatre's celebration of new sites and speaking to a broader audience, included a special concert performance of Cavalleria rusticana at Meadowbrook Amphitheatre, the staging of the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre's first opera, Blue, of which Opera News said, "Opera doesn't get more contemporary, extraordinary, or crucially relevant than Blue." Act I concluded with MOT Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director Yuval Sharon's reimagining of Bliss. Ragnar Kjartansson's 12-hour repetition of an excerpt from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, staged in the historic Michigan Building Theatre, drew nearly 3,000 attendees and received stellar reviews.

In "Act II: Coming Home," MOT looks back with fresh eyes upon its roots, embodied first by a return to its original performance space, Music Hall. "Coming Home" commences on February 26-27, 2022 with the return of an MOT favorite, Robert Xavier Rodríguez and Migdalia Cruz's Frida, in the production originally staged by Jose Maria Condemi. Cruz's libretto follows the life, philosophy, and art of Frida Kahlo from her schoolgirl days through her marriage to painter Diego Rivera, creation of her own unprecedented body of work, and many tempestuous encounters with the art-world status quo. Rodríguez's score, written for chamber orchestra, mixes mariachi-style orchestrations with classical opera and hints of Mexican folk songs. Condemi's production has traveled to other companies including Cincinnati Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, Anchorage Opera, and Portland Opera. Originally planned for MOT's 50th anniversary celebration, Frida returns with the original cast from its 2014-15 run, featuring Catalina Cuervo as Frida, which is now a signature role for her, and Ricardo Herrera as Diego Rivera. MOT Assistant Music Director Suzanne Mallare Acton conducts.

"As MOT prepares for the second half of its 21-22 season, we invite you to join us for a mini-series (opera and/or dance) on the remarkable journey that lies ahead," MOT President and CEO Wayne S. Brown said. "I assure you, it will be a fascinating ride! We are particularly excited to welcome back the Dance Theatre of Harlem in January for a world premiere performance by Stevie Wonder, Higher Ground, and the remount of the 2015 MOT Production of Robert Rodriquez's Frida featuring members of the original cast, including Catalina Cuervo and Ricardo Herrera."

MOT truly comes home on April 2, 2022, with the triumphant return to a newly-improved and more accessible Detroit Opera House for the first in-person opera performances in more than two years. This momentous occasion is marked by a new production of Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, led by Yuval Sharon; co-produced with Boston Lyric Opera and Spoleto Festival USA. In a historic first, Sharon and MOT extract hope from tragedy, life from death, and love from loneliness by staging Puccini's tragic opera in reverse order-starting with Act IV and ending with Act I. This adventurous production of all 100 minutes of music will be performed with no intermission; conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni, featuring Aundi Marie Moore as Mimí, Matthew White as Rodolfo, Brandie Sutton as Musetta, and Edward Parks as Marcello.

"Coming Home" concludes in May, with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis's X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, in a new production led by Tony Award-nominee Robert O'Hara and conducted by Kazem Abdullah. X pairs Davis's distinctly American score with a libretto by Thulani and Kip Davis, together casting an unflinching look at one of the most unfairly maligned men in American history in all of his complexity. X stars MOT's 2021-22 Artist-in-Residence Davóne Tines in the title role. Tines was recently named Musical America's 2022 Vocalist of the Year.

"If I have done my job, by the end of this residency I will look out at the audience during my performances of X and see the faces of the broader black and intersectional communities that I recognize and have gotten to know during this time," Tines said. "It is my deep hope that the relationships we're laying the groundwork for continue to be nurtured long after the curtain closes."

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is presented by Cadillac and co-produced with Opera Omaha, the Metropolitan Opera, and Seattle Opera. The production also received funding from OPERA America's Next Stage program - supported by Gene Kaufman, Terry Eder-Kaufman, and New Vision for Opera, with additional revision support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

In addition to a robust spring opera season, dance will make a triumphant return to the Detroit Opera House stage with two productions: Dance Theatre of Harlem and Ballet Hispánico.

Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) returns to the Detroit Opera House January 22 & 23, 2022, in rescheduled performances from March 2020. The performances include a Detroit premiere by choreographer Claudia Schreier and a world premiere by DTH resident choreographer Robert Garland. Created specifically for DTH, Schreier's work, Passage, recognizes the 400th anniversary of enslaved Africans arriving in Virginia in 1619. Exploring the strength of the human spirit in this moving, complex contemplation, Passage features music by acclaimed composer Jessie Montgomery. Higher Ground is the latest work by DTH resident choreographer Robert Garland set to Stevie Wonder songs penned during turbulent times. This world premiere piece pioneers the use of ballet as resistance art and is "a marvel of a work that shows off Mr. Garland's many choreographic gifts, from his sparkling musicality to his ability to seamlessly weave classical ballet with influences from modern and social dance" (The New York Times).

Dance Theatre of Harlem is presented by Ford Motor Company Fund with additional support from the New England Foundation for the Arts.

On March 19-20, audience favorite Ballet Hispánico returns to celebrate its 50th anniversary with the Detroit premiere of Doña Perón: The Rise and Fall of a Diva, a full-length ballet based on one of the most spellbinding women of South American history. Eva "Evita" Perón rose from dancehall performer to First Lady of Argentina-all before her untimely death at 33 years old. Ballet Hispánico explores the Argentinean icon with this seminal new work. Sumptuous, surprising, and instantly popular-like Evita herself-Doña Perón is choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the internationally-renowned maker of the Scottish Ballet's A Streetcar Named Desire, and set to music by the inimitable ballet composer Peter Salem.

Learn more at www.michiganopera.org.

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