Mark Your Calendar
Today--The Subscription Renewal campaign begins. Renew your subscription to lock in your seats early!
November 3--Subscriptions go on sale to the general public. Purchase tickets to all three 2009 productions to save money and get the very best seating selection!
February 1, 2009--The final dress rehearsal of OPERA Iowa's touring production of The Barber of Seville will be a 1:30 matinee at Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre.
February 20, 2009--Wine & Food Showcase, central Iowa's largest unlimited food and beverage tasting event, is back at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott!

Our annual subscription renewal process is underway through October 31. Current season ticket holders can renew their subscriptions beginning today. There are several easy ways to renew your subscription:

• Complete the renewal form that was mailed to you and return it to us (if you didn't receive your form in the mail, click here to have one sent to you by email)
• Visit www.desmoinesmetroopera.org and click on Buy Season Tickets
• Call (515) 961-6221 and talk with a member of our staff 

You'll want to lock in your seats for the 2009 season before anyone else has the opportunity to purchase them, so don't wait to renew your subscription! As always, subscribers have a number of benefits, including ticket exchange privileges, that aren't available to single ticket buyers.

Once you've renewed, you'll rest easy knowing that you've secured your favorite seats for our productions of Tosca, Der Freischütz and The Barber of Seville.

DMMO's Guild boasts three chapters: one in Ames, one in Des Moines and one in Indianola. Throughout the year, our Guild plans many events, lectures and fundraisers for the opera-lovers of Central Iowa, in addition to regular monthly meetings.

The Des Moines chapter will meet on Monday, October 6, in the Mansion at Wesley Acres for their first meeting of the year. Members and newcomers will enjoy a performance by classical guitarist Aaron Powell and conversation. Future meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month in the Mansion at Wesley Acres.

The Ames chapter will meet at St. John's Episcopal Center on Tuesday, October 14. DMMO's former Executive Director Jerilee Mace will reflect on the Company's first 35 years. The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm at St. John's Episcopal Center. The Ames chapter meets each month on the second Tuesday.

The Indianola chapter will gather at Nancy Baethke's home on Tuesday, October 21 at 7:00 pm for a preview of The Barber of Seville given by DMMO's Artistic Administrator, Michael Egel. For directions to the Baethkes' home, contact Nancy Lickiss at (515) 961-8219.

For more information about joining the Guild, contact the DMMO office or one of the membership chairs listed below:
Ames--Jane Farrell-Beck
Des Moines--Joan Burke
Indianola--Elizabeth Winjum

Need a gift for a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion? DMMO's Opera Boutique is online to make shopping from home easy and convenient! You can find DMMO's Anniversary Book, coffee mugs, umbrellas and more. All orders are shipped directly from DMMO to you!

The program cover

by DMMO subscriber, Bill Smith

Bal Maskerad - G. Verdi

An extra day in Kyiv? [or Kiev, if you prefer the Russian version to the Ukrainian].

What to do?  My Kyivan friends suggested going to the Opera: "At least it's a wonderful building." It is a glorious building; a classic grand opera house built in 1901 with four decks of balconies in an ornate eastern European style. Its proscenium stage is one of the largest in Europe. 

The wonderful building is home to a terrific opera company. And a ballet company too, but that will have to wait for another visit. Both are great cultural choices for travelers who do not speak Ukrainian. Between the opera and ballet, the building is busy 5 or 6 days a week. The opera offerings are a mix of western and Russian classics, as well as Ukrainian and Russian works that are less familiar to us. The Company's repertory is extensive - the September and October playbills (view them online at http://www.opera.com.ua/index_en.html) list over a dozen operas. 

After a Saturday walk around the city in a mild drizzle, I reached the box office about 45 minutes before curtain. The second tier tickets [$35] were sold out, so I splurged for the most expensive seat, which proved to be front row on the aisle for the equivalent of about $40 - state subsidies can do marvelous things! If I had better [or any] language skills, I might have saved a few hrivny - tickets start at about $10. 

I had a really unique experience leaving the box office. A smartly dressed woman said, with a slight accent, "Excuse me, could you help me buy a ticket?" She was asking for money, not help with the transaction. I've been hustled in major cities across America ["Hey, my car broke down/I need a beer/my kids are hungry, can you help me out . . ."], but this was the first time I've been hustled for an opera ticket. I made a small contribution to international culture, but still had mixed emotions when I saw this woman seated just six rows behind me in the ‘parterre'. 

I was seated next to another business traveler, a young man from Barcelona. He shared his program - I originally didn't buy one (they cost about $3) until I saw that it had an English synopsis, which supplemented my memory of A Masked Ball from the Des Moines production in July, 2008. The program also contained a full libretto in Ukrainian. Supertitles were provided too, but I can't read the Cyrillic alphabet fast enough, and wouldn't understand much anyway.

Oh, the performance? Brilliant music came from a 70-piece orchestra that emphasized Verdi's rhythms. The singers were anyone's match, and the characters were well presented. The costumes were lavish, with lots of cockades, swords, sashes and braid. The sets were elegant, with terrific trompe l'oeil effects that made the palace look spacious, and lighting that accentuated the mood of Ulrica's witchy lair and the midnight scene with gallows very much in evidence.  The staging highlighted a difference from the Des Moines Opera style: in the Kyiv production most of the arias and other longer passages were sung with minimal movement; Dr. Larsen's direction emphasizes continuous acting throughout these moments. It was a thoroughly delightful evening, and a reminder that the arts can offer a home in an unfamiliar city.

For pictures of the Opera House, see http://www.opera.com.ua/ and http://kievukraine.info/opera_house.htm

Karita Mattila

Salome by Richard Strauss
Saturday, October 11, 2008 (12:00 pm CT)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 (7:00 pm CT)
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Karita Mattila caused a sensation when she sang Salome at the Met for the first time in 2004. She reprises her stunning interpretation of the part, including her unforgettable Dance of the Seven Veils.

Conductor: Mikko Franck; Production: Jürgen Flimm; Karita Mattila, Ildikó Komlósi, Juha Uusitalo, Kim Begley, Joseph Kaiser

There are several events coming up in the next few weeks that you won't want to miss! Support the arts in Central Iowa by attending one or all of the following:

• The Friends of Drake Arts invite you to a recital given by the Edwin Earle Ferguson Guest Artist, soprano Cheryl Studer on Saturday, October 4 at 8:00 pm. The recital will take place on the Jordan Stage in the Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main on the Drake University campus. The program will feature works by Brahms, Rossini, Barber, and Richard Strauss. A reception will follow in Levitt Hall. Tickets are $15 or $5 for students, senior citizens and those with a Drake ID. Call 515-271-3841 for reservations.
• The Simpson College Department of Music will present a double bill of Arthur Benjamin's Prima Donna and Gaetano Donizetti's Il Campanello on Friday and Saturday, October 10 & 11 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 12 at 2:00 pm. These productions feature student casts with musical direction by Dr. Robert L. Larsen and dramatic direction by Kimberly Roberts and Bruce Brown. Performances will be held in Lekberg Hall in Simpson College's Music Buildging and tickets are just $12 each. Call (515) 961-1637 before October 8 for reservations.
• The world premiere of The Sparks Fly Upward will be on Saturday, November 8 at 8:00 pm at Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre in Des Moines. The Sparks Fly Upward is a musical drama that follows three German families in Berlin, two Jewish and one Christian, through the Holocaust, beginning in the autumn of 1938 with the events building up to Kristallnacht. Between 1938 and the end of the war in 1945, the families struggle to outlast Hitler. Throughout the story, the three families turn to the Book of Job for reassurance and enlightenment. The suffering of Job, and the contest between good and evil represented in his story, are reflected in the lives of the German Jewish community, and in their non-Jewish neighbors, who face the immediate question of man's obligation to man in times of moral and political crisis. The story is told completely through music and lyrics and was researched, written and composed Cathy Lesser Mansfield. Visit their website to learn more and to buy tickets.