AT&T Stadium in Arlington might seem like just a mecca for football, but for a week this spring, the pigskin gives way to alley-oops and arias. First comes the NCAA Final Four. That same week, the Dallas Opera presents a free simulcast on the stadium’s big screen.
On Tuesday, the opera announced its third simulcast at AT&T Stadium -- and pulled back the curtain on the upcoming season. It includes some cartoon opera news.
The 1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit of Seville will open the evening performance April 11 for the opera’s third free simulcast, this time of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.
The Barber of Seville will be the season closer. Then the Dallas Opera returns in the fall with five mainstage shows. It’s the company’s first such season since it was forced to cut back to three shows in 2012.
Dallas Opera general director Keith Cerny says the reduction was necessary to deliver the balanced budget he announced in September.
“It is a big landmark for the company,” he said. “We had cut back down to three as part of a set of austerity measures, and we feel confident enough in our financial position to have scheduled five for next.”
That new season opens in October. The Marriage of Figaro will be staged by Kevin Moriarty, the artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center. Moriarty directed the opera The Lighthouse for the company in 2012 in the Wyly Theatre, but Figaro will be his Winspear debut.
The rest of the new season will feature the world premiere of Everest, with a libretto by Gene Sheer, who wrote the libretto for Moby-Dick, which the Dallas Opera premiered in 2010. As for the fact the Dallas Opera is getting in the habit of opening simulcasts with Bugs Bunny cartoons, Cerny points out they’re not running out of such popular opera parodies.
“There are a lot of opera cartoons,” he said. “It’s quite notable how often opera is featured one way or another in cartoons.”
For more on the Dallas Opera and its upcoming performances,visit KERA's Art&Seek.
