It didn't take much convincing for Linus Lerner to get nearly 30 musicians from his Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra to join him in Colombia last summer to perform Verdi's grand opera "Aida."
"They love playing opera," Lerner said. "The idea for us at SASO is that people want to play opera. For them, this is a thrill."
Stephanie Mao accompanies the Passion Project: Opera! and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra for a cast rehearsal of a scene from Lβenfant Prodigue. The two groups are combining to perform pieces from three operas at various venues.
This weekend, the orchestra will be back on an opera stage, teaming up with Tucson vocalist Korby Myrick's fledgling Passion Project: Opera! for its first fully-staged public performance.
SASO and PPO will mount a double-bill of Puccini's "Suor Angelica" (Sister Angelica) and Debussy's "L'Enfant Prodigue" (The Prodigal Son), two one-act operas that Myrick described as "rare gems." The Puccini runs about an hour while Debussy'sΒ runs about 25 minutes.
"Suor Angelica" is about a princess who was banished to a convent after giving birth to an illegitimate son. When her aunt visits her at the convent seven years later to get Angelica to sign over her inheritance, she learns that her son has died. Overcome by grief, she takes poison but quickly realizes killing herself is a mortal sin that could prevent her from seeing her son in heaven.Β
Kimberly Chaffin, playing Lia, and Bo Shimmin, as Azalea, rehearse a scene from Lβenfant Prodigue, a collaboration between Passion Project: Opera! and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.
"L'Enfant Prodigue" takes its lead from the Biblical parable in Luke 15, where the son takes his inheritance, then goes off and squanders it on earthly pleasures before coming home, dejected, and being forgiven by his father. In Debussy's version, it is the mother, Lia, who pines for her outcast sonΒ AzaΓ«l's return while his father,Β SimΓ©on,Β remains steadfast in his objections. Once AzaΓ«l returns, Lia is able to convinceΒ SimΓ©on to forgive their son and celebrate his homecoming.Β
Music Director Kirby Myrick gets the cast together for a quick French pronunciation lesson as the rehearsal for Lβenfant Prodigue wraps up for the night. Passion Project: Opera! and Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra are combing to offer scenes from a few chamber operas for Tucson audiences.
This weekend's collaboration came after Lerner attended PPO's performance of Pietro Mascagni's "L'amico Fritz" last spring.Β
Stage Director David Morden offers some notes to the cast rehearsing a scene for Lβenfant Prodigue, a collaborative production by Project Passion: Opera! and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.
"He's a singer himself," Myrick said of Lerner, who suggested the collaboration. "He loves opera and I think the orchestra, they're starting to love opera. And I think the audience is ready for it, too."
Myrick recalled that after SASO's "Opera and Songs" concert last MarchΒ β a trio of vocalists performed a dozen opera arias, including from Bizet's "Carmen," Puccini's "La BohΓ©me" and LehΓ‘r's "The Merry Widow"Β β someone in the audience spoke up and said they wanted to hear more opera.
Myrick said Tucson has an appetite for opera, especially after Arizona Opera in the 2024-25 season scaled back its offerings to three operas and reduced performances from two in Tucson to one.
The only other outlet for the art form is the University of Arizona Opera Theater, which mounts two productions a year, one in the fall and one in the spring. In March, it will present a program of two one-act comic operasΒ β Menotti's "The Telephone" and Mozart's "Der Schauspieldirektor" (The Impresario) β with Arizona Symphony.
Opera's downsizing in Tucson is what led Myrick, a mezzo-soprano with more than 50 performances with Arizona Opera, and Barbara Pritchard, a soprano who teaches at the UA, to create Passion Project: Opera! in 2019.
They had three productions in private residences before hitting pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The non-profit company, which features local and national professional singers, was on hiatus until it regrouped last year.Β
"This is a small opera company, and what we do is rare gems of operas that aren't performed for one reason or another, and we've done them typically in beautiful homes," Myrick said. "And we've done some very, very interesting pieces with piano."
This weekend will be the first time they will be accompanied by an orchestra.
Conductor of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra Linus Lerner directs the cast rehearsing Lβenfant Prodigue.
Lerner said this weekend's performances will be a test run that could lead to wider collaborations going forward. He said SASO has already lined up a financial backer to support the opera collaboration.
"We have a niche here for performing operas, and we have a sponsor," he said. "PPO brings good singers and most are local. ... We're definitely testing the waters. We definitely are thinking about doing it annually."
SASO has a long career of performing opera, going back to its first experience in 2013 at theΒ Oaxaca Opera Festival, which Lerner founded and directed. The orchestra participated in Oaxaca, which later became the San Luis Opera Festival, for several years.
This weekend's performances are at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, at Grace St. Paul's Church, 2331 E. Adams St.; 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at La Rosa, 800 N. Country Club Road; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 7650 N. Paseo del Norte.
Tickets, available through sasomusic.org, are $35 Friday and Sunday, $36.04-$56.04 Saturday.Β
To learn more about PPO, visit passionprojectopera.org.
