2025 Opera Conservatory

Common Threads: The Music of Damien Geter

Composer: Damien Geter 

Performance Dates: July 9 in Flectcher Music Hall 
Stage Director: Kimille Howard

the Opera Conservatory will present an evening of music and scenes by celebrated composer Damien Geter, followed by a discussion between Geter, stage director Kimille Howard, and Artistic Advisor Denyce Graves. Included on this program will be songs from Cotton and scenes from Loving v. Virginia (whose world premiere was directed by Ms. Graves this spring).

Damien Geter is an acclaimed American composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice, as well as a celebrated bass-baritone – “amazing to listen to. Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register” (Northwest Reverb) – whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. He is Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence through 2026 and serves as Interim Music Director & Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera.

Le nozze di Figaro

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 
Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte 

Performance Date: July 17 & 19 at Fletcher Music Hall    
Stage Director: Nathan Troup 

It’s a wedding, and you’re invited! 

A contemporary production of Le Nozze di Figaro reimagines the classic opera in a modern context, blending traditional elements with innovative staging and design and modern dress Set against a backdrop of a sleek, minimalist environment, this production will highlight themes of class struggle and gender dynamics through a contemporary lens. From Figaro and famously sharp banter to the Count’s unsettling attempts to exert power over Susanna, this production will crackle with wit while lifting up ever-relevant themes of inequality, consent and agency in relationships, and gender dynamics.  And while no marriage is perfect…that of Mozart’s music and Da Ponte’s text comes exceedingly close in ways brilliant, bawdy, and bold (just as Beaumarchais intended back in 1778). This production invigorates Mozart’s masterpiece, inviting audiences to reflect on its themes within the context of our modern sensibilities. Please join us for this musically sublime tragicomedy exploring life, liberty, and the pursuit of upending the patriarchy. 

La Vida Breve

Music by: Manuel de Falla 
Librettist: Carlos Fernández Shaw

Performance Date: July 28 at The Amphitheater
Stage Director: Emma Griffin 
Conductor: Timothy Muffitt 

La Vida Breve, with music by Manuel de Falla and a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, is considered one of the greatest operas written in Spanish. Written in 1905, it’s a kind of “tragic zarzuela”, a hothouse verismo opera that mixes Andalusian folk songs into a score shimmering with French Impressionism. This vivid and engrossing opera centers on Salud, the working-class heroine, a victim of passion and betrayal. Salud loves Paco, a sophisticated cad, who offers her pledges of love but marries another, wealthier, girl, leaving Salud desolate with heartbreak. Only one hour long, La Vida Breve is sonically thrilling, with richly sung emotion and vivacious rhythms — a gripping story of the human condition.