Nashville Opera announced their 204-2025 season and they are going for romance! There’s a new world premiere from an GRAMMY-nominated composer and conductor. There are not one but two extremely popular classics. The season closes with one of the greatest, most romantic Italian operas ever written. Details below!

September 26 + 28, 2024
Tennessee Performing Arts Center – Jackson Hall

Score by Georges Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy
(Based on a novel by Propser Merimee)
Premiered in Paris, Opera Comique, March 3, 1875

Directed by John Hoomes
Conducted by Dean Williamson
Featuring the Nashville Opera Orchestra
Sung in French with projected English lyrics

Don Jose, a young soldier, has his life planned out. He’ll have a solid career in the military; he’ll marry his hometown sweetheart…everything in order. But then he meets…CARMEN. Considered by many to be the most popular opera ever written, the sensual tale of Carmen, the free-spirited, passionate girl, is a work teaming with excitement, emotion, and desire. Bizet’s stunning and beautiful music paints the days of desert heat, and the nights of fiery passion with an all-consuming fever that cannot be ignored.

November 15, 16, 17, 2024
Noah Liff Opera Center Studio

Shawn Okpebholo’s THE COOK-OFF (World Premiere)
Libretto by Mark Campbell
Sung in English and Spanish with projected English supertitles

Featuring Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appétit! (The Julia Child Opera)
Sung in English with projected English supertitles

THE COOK OFF Directed by John Hoomes
BON APPÉTIT Directed by Emily Pulley
Conducted by Dean Williamson
Featuring the Nashville Opera Orchestra

They’re serving two delicious comedies in a big blue plate special!

As your appetizer, Julia Child teaches the audience how to make a chocolate cake (in a somewhat roundabout, hilarious way).

For the main course, join three contestants of your favorite TV cooking competition, America Loves Food, as they compete to make America’s favorite comfort food: macaroni & cheese!

January 24, 25, 25, 2025
Tennessee Performing Arts Center – Polk Theater

Directed by Emily Pulley
Conducted by Dean Williamson
Featuring the Nashville Opera Orchestra
Sung in English with projected English lyrics

Score by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by Sir William S. Gilbert
Premiered in London, Opera Comique, May 25, 1878

H.M.S. Pinafore was the show that began it all for G&S. Sullivan’s beautiful music paired with the clever wordplay of Gilbert produced many classics of the music theatre stage, but none more audience pleasing than this early collaboration.  Nowadays, the very mention of the names Gilbert and Sullivan evoke the memory of such shows as The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, and Iolanthe.  But it all started here!

With all the topsy-turvy storytelling and wordplay you can handle, this high-seas operetta is all high-jinks and good times for the whole family!

April 3 + 5, 2025
Tennessee Performing Arts Center – Jackson Hall

Directed by John Hoomes
Conducted by Dean Williamson
Featuring the Nashville Opera Orchestra
Sung in English with projected English lyrics

Score by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano
(Based on the book The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott)
Premiere: Naples, Teatro San Carlo, September 26, 1835

Deep in the Scottish moors, trouble brews. Lucia is in love with Edgardo, but is forced into a loveless, arranged marriage to another man by her possessive, controlling brother. Driven to the brink of madness and despair, Lucia takes matters into her own hands, with horrific results.

Considered one of the greatest romantic, Italian operas ever written (based on Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel), Lucia is classic bel canto (beautiful singing) opera featuring passionate music, intense drama, the world famous sextet in Act II, and the show stopping Mad Scene!

Opera ON WHEELS is Nashville Opera’s summer and fall program of touring performances. On special performances, Nashville Opera brings their mobile stage for outdoor shows into our local Nashville communities— all with beautiful live music performed by some of Nashville’s best classically trained singers.

Opera ON WHEELS offers family-friendly programs of “greatest hits” from opera, operetta, and musical theatre.

Schedule

Saturday, May 4 at 12 PM- Church Street Park

600 Church St, Nashville, TN, 37219

Friday, May 10 at 6 PM- Winchester Community Center

563 Maury Hill St, Spring Hill, TN, 37174

Saturday, May 11 (9 AM-9:20 AM, 10 AM-10:20 AM, 11 AM-11:20 AM)- Clarksville Farmer’s Market

1 Public Square, Clarksville, TN, 37040

Sunday, May 12 (11 AM-11:20 AM, 12:30 PM-12:50 PM, 1:30 PM-1:50 PM, 3 PM-3:20 PM)- Nashville Zoo

3777 Nolensville Pike, Nashville, TN, 37211

Saturday, May 18 at 12 PM- Noble Park

307 11th Ave S, Nashville, TN, 37203

Saturday, June 1 (exact perf. times still TBD)- Franklin Pride

The Park at Harlinsdale Farm- 239 Franklin Rd, Franklin, TN, 37064

Thursday, June 6 at 6:45 PM- Movies In The Park

3531 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37205

Thursday, June 13 at 6:45 PM- Movies In The Park

3531 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37205

Thursday, June 20 at 6:45 PM- Movies In The Park

3531 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37205

Saturday, June 22 (2:30 PM-3 PM, 4:30 PM-5 PM)- Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church

1203 9th Ave. N, Nashville, TN, 37208

Thursday, June 27 at 6:45 PM- Movies In The Park

3531 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37205

Saturday, June 29 (4 PM-4:30 PM, 6:30 PM-7 PM)- Dickson, TN performance

Main St., Dickson, TN, 37055

Saturday, July 6 at 4:30 PM- Plaza Mariachi

3955 Nolensville Pike, Nashville, TN, 37211

Saturday, July 27 at 11:15 AM- Southeast Community Day

Mill Ridge Park, 12924 Old Hickory Blvd., Antioch, TN, 37013

SAT, JUNE 15, 2024 | 6:00 – 10:00 PM
VANDERBILT DYER OBSERVATORY

TICKETS ON SALE TUESDAY, MAY 7 @ 9:30 AM

Pack your picnic basket, choose your favorite bottle of bubbly, and join us for a perfect evening of song and sky-gazing on the gorgeous green grounds of Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory.

A perennial family-friendly favorite, rain or shine, Opera on the Mountain sells out every year!

Relax with friends as Nashville Opera artists offer up fun opera and musical-theatre favorites.  After, you’ll have the opportunity to gather on the roof to gaze at the moon through Dyer’s grand telescope.

Times
6:00  Gates open
7:30  Concert
9:00  Moon viewing through the telescope

Tickets

$25 Lawn seat (views may be obstructed)
$80 Carload of 4 lawn seats
$45 Sky-view table seat
$90 Tented table seat

Note:  This year’s tented tables seat either four, six or or eight people.  Please note when purchasing table seats, unless you fill the table with your guests, other patrons might be seated with you.  (And that could be part of the fun!) Limited numbers of four and six-tops are available.  Please phone the Noah Liff Opera Center at 615.832.5242 to inquire.