Unexpected Opera in Unexpected Places
March 21 through March 24, 2013, 8pm-11:30pm
The Stage
170 Northeast 38th St.
Miami, FL 33137
General admission, standing-room tickets are $25 per person; recommended for ages 18 and older. Tickets and online at www.FGO.org or at the door the day of the event.

Program:
8:00 p.m. – Doors Open
9:00 – 9:30 p.m. – Pre-show with live band
9:30 – 10:00 p.m. – Tango
10:00 – 10:15 p.m. – Intermission
10:15 – 11:15 p.m. – María de Buenos Aires

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is proud to announce a new three-year program entitled “Unexpected Operas in Unexpected Places,” designed to bring less-known works to unique venues throughout South Florida in an effort to expose new audiences to opera, with the support of a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knights Arts Challenge. The first installment of this new initiative will bring operatic productions to the Midtown neighborhood for the first time with a tango double-bill featuring Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Tango and Ástor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires, held at the popular Midtown music venue The Stage.
 
“Sometimes it’s about taking opera out of the opera house to revitalize the art form for new audiences, bringing them something they consider traditional in a completely unexpected way,” said Susan Danis, FGO’s General Director and CEO.
 
"Today’s audiences demand to be engaged. The opera’s new format is embracing that challenge by taking artists out of the formal performance hall and into people’s everyday lives and, we hope, reminding them how important and fun the classics are," said Dennis Scholl, vice president for arts at Knight Foundation.

With Unexpected Operas in Unexpected Places, FGO has created an opportunity to tap into Miami’s ever-growing community of young art lovers while also breaking down common stereotypes about the art form being boring, stuffy, or drawn-out. Proving that this production is anything but, the show uses the local bar scene and a standing-room format to put audience members in the middle of the action as the brief, yet sultry tales of lust, romance, and tango unravel around them.
 
"The double bill is not only dark and provocative, but the music calls for an unconventional setting that mimics the bars and nightclubs of Buenos Aires, where the story takes place and tango itself was born,” said Maestro Ramon Tebar, FGO Music Director and the production’s conductor. “No other city brings nightlife and culture together like Miami. It was a perfect fit!”
 
This daring production is brought to life onstage by the exciting young voices of FGO’s Young Artist Studio, with guest artists, Maestro Tebar at the podium and under the scenic direction of José Maria Condemi.
 
A two-time winner of FGO’s Henry C. Clark Award and recently appointed Artistic Director of the Palm Beach Symphony, Tebar has been said to “… achieve perfect pitch and harmony from all parts of the orchestra and, with involved and passionate action, direct the tempo with perfection to motivate the entire orchestra, making poetry …,” according to a review by the Dominican newspaper Hoy Digital [translated from Spanish]. Condemi, who has directed a multitude of operas in varied repertoire throughout the country and abroad, is described by the Wall Street Journal as “ingenious … a young Argentine-born director who makes no mistakes.”