If you’re gonna stage an opera about young love, mistaken identities and redemption set in a garden, what better location than Tucson’s lush Tohono Chul.
Arizona Opera, as part of its season-long Beyond Downtown series, is taking its act outdoors on Saturday, March 22, when it brings Mozart’s “The Secret Gardener” to Tohono Chul park.
The production was created in 2017 in a collaboration with Atlanta Opera and the New York-based On Site Opera, whose mission was to take opera out of traditional venues and place it in spaces that fit the storytelling.
Arizona Opera is bringing Mozart’s charming opera “The Secret Gardener” to Tohono Chul Park on Saturday, March 22.
“We thought, what a perfect partnership to blend this idea of getting outside of the concert hall, to find a space where you don’t expect to see opera necessarily to create something that’s just really delightful and fun,” said Joseph Specter, Arizona Opera’s president and general director. “Tohono Chul is just such a such a pretty environment for us to to try this kind of a program out.”
Mozart composed the Italian opera in 1775, weaving a charming tale of a triple love triangle that includes a spurned affair that turns near deadly, jealousy that leads to a kidnapping, redeemed love and a rejected lover returning to the man she had earlier rejected.
Soprano Emma Marhefka plays Sandrina in Mozart’s “The Secret Gardener.” Despite being stabbed and left for dead by her lover Belfiore, Sandrina still loves him.
Artists with the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio will perform the 90-minute work, which will be a full-costumed performance with live music.
“The Secret Gardener” is the latest in Arizona Opera’s Beyond Downtown series, which has included concerts and
recitals and Gregg
Kallor’s chamber opera
“The Tell-Tale Heart” based on the Edgar Allen Poe story, which the company staged in the Temple of Music and Art plaza last October.
The company had been working with On Site Opera through the fall. In early January, On Site announced it was ceasing operations after 12 years because of financial challenges.
Tenor Sam Krausz plays Belfiore, who stabs his lover Sandrina but still wants her back in Mozart’s “The Secret Gardener.”
Specter, who will leave Arizona Opera at the end of the season to join the Scottsdale-based Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, said the Beyond Downtown initiative is similar to ideas arts organizations and opera companies have been trying in order to attract new audiences.
“Arizona Opera and I would say the opera industry at large is exploring ways to connect with audiences, new audiences and traditional audiences, and expand our impact as an arts organization in the community,” he said. “Hopefully in the process, (we) not just create awareness but maybe find a place in the hearts of newcomers to the art form that may endure over a period of time.”
Saturday’s performance begins at 1 p.m. at Tohono Chul, 7366 N. Paseo Del Norte, off West Ina Road on the northwest side. Tickets are $30 through tickets.azopera.org.
The performance is in English with English and Spanish supertitles.
