A Huge Success!

The 36th Festival Season

Subscription Campaign

Three Great Operas On Tap For 2008

Mark Your Calendar:
September 17--Subscription Renewal Period Begins.
Current subscribers will have the opportunity to secure their tickets for the 36th Festival season between September 17 and October 31.
November 1--New Subscriptions Go On Sale.
Ticket buyers who have not subscribed before will be able to order their opera tickets for all three of next summer's operas.

A Huge Success!

The 35th Anniversary Season was a triumph! We had sold-out houses for all 16 of our performances of Carmen, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Otello! We certainly couldn't have done it without you. All of us here at Des Moines Metro Opera want to thank you for being a part of this glorious season. It takes a small army to achieve what we have achieved and we owe a debt of gratitude to each of you: our ticket buyers, donors, Guild members, ushers, supernumeraries, extra chorus members, children's chorus members and parents, and program advertisers. All of these committed individuals, groups, organizations and businesses contribute something vital to Des Moines Metro Opera. Bravi!

Thank you each so much and we'll see you next year!

The 36th Festival Season

On the evening of Wednesday, July 25, DMMO's Board of Directors met for the Annual Meeting to celebrate the 35th Season's successes and to hear from Dr. Larsen what operas will be produced during the summer of 2008.

Held from June 20 through July 13, 2008, the 36th Festival Season will feature productions of:

• Verdi's A Masked Ball (sung in Italian)
• Blitzstein's Regina (sung in English)
• Donizetti's The Elixir of Love (sung in English)

See the article below to learn a bit more about each of these operas.

Subscription Campaign

One of the benefits of being a season ticket holder is the opportunity to renew your subscription for the upcoming season before the general public! Current subscribers can renew their subscriptions beginning on September 17. (Watch your mail for the 2008 brochure!)

On November 1, subscriptions go on sale to the general public. Buying a season ticket definitely has it's advantages! As a subscriber, you have the privilege of exchanging your ticket dates if you find a conflict arises in your schedule, you get the best choice of seats since you can purchase your tickets earlier and you can save money!

Three Great Operas On Tap For 2008

Giuseppe Verdi's A Masked Ball (or Un Ballo in Maschera in the original Italian) is an opera that had a rough time getting to the stage. Government censors forced Verdi to change the location from the court of Sweden's Gustav III to Boston to avoid stirring anti-monarchy sentiment. It is the story of a plot to kill the king mixed with seduction, betrayal and fortune-telling.

Click here to read a full synopsis of A Masked Ball in the Metropolitan Opera's archive.

Regina, Marc Blitzstein's opera based on Lillian Hellman's play, The Little Foxes, premiered in New York in 1949. It is a tale of greed and the consuming desire for wealth and power and the consequences on a Southern family at the turn of the last century.

Click here to learn more about the play that inspired Regina.

Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love (or L'Elisir d'Amore in Italian) is set in Spain's Basque region during the 19th century. A charming comedy of love, this opera is one of the finest examples of the bel canto style of opera and features lush music that will tantalize and excite with coloratura acrobatics.

Click here to read a full synopsis of The Elixir of Love in the Metropolitan Opera's archive.