Tucson classical music sees biggest post-pandemic audiences

With the exception of a few dozen seats in the balcony, Linda Ronstadt Music Hall was full Saturday for Arizona Opera‘s production of Puccini’s “La Boheme.”

It was a similar story for Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s trio of “Mahler and Schumann” performances Saturday and Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School featuring mezzo Sasha Cooke. The concert and the opera were part of the 2025 Tucson Desert Song Festival, which runs through Feb. 28 and from April 1-19.

Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra sold out its “Musical Journeys” concert Saturday night in SaddleBrooke and had a near full house for its performance Sunday afternoon in the expansive sanctuary of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on the northwest side.

“This is the biggest audience we’ve seen since the pandemic,” SASO Music Director Linus Lerner said during Sunday’s intermission, moments after Italian pianist Paolo Scafarella performed Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Second Piano Concerto. Lerner said the work had only been performed in the United States two other times.

Tucson classical music organizations have struggled to reclaim their pre-pandemic audiences, often performing to loosely-filled houses. That was one of the reasons Arizona Opera this season streamlined its schedule to three Main Stage productions and added “Beyond Downtown,” unstaged opera performances held outdoors in Tucson and Phoenix. It also reduced the number of Main Stage performances from three to two in Phoenix and two to one in Tucson.

The Tucson performance was a matinee, which was a first for the bi-city company that started out in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company. Until this season, Tucson performances were held on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

When they announced the changes, Arizona Opera President and General Director Joseph Specter said he hoped the move would help the company to right its financial ship, which took a hit with a loss of ticket sales and contributed revenue during the pandemic shutdown.

The situation improved only slightly when live performances returned in fall 2021. Audiences, which tend to lean older, were slow to return largely given sporadic outbreaks of COVID.

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But the reduced performance schedule appears to have had an impact. Symphony Hall in Phoenix was full for the two performances of “La Bohéme” on Jan. 25-26 and aside from a handful of seats in the balcony, Linda Ronstadt Music Hall was packed for Saturday’s performance.

“It was certainly our fullest Tucson performance since returning from the pandemic, and the energy in the hall was electric,” Specter said Sunday.

In addition to Scafarella’s performance, Sunday’s SASO concert included the orchestra’s heartfelt performance of SASO violist/composer Richard White’s moving “Elegy for Juliet.” White wrote the piece for his late wife and included subtle references to Nat King Cole’s timeless ballad “When I Fall In Love” and the 19th century Shaker classic “Simple Gift.”

Lerner and the orchestra opened the program with a spirited performance of Leroy Anderson’s silly and fun “The Waltzing Cat,” complete with a trio of SASO percussionists meowing, a sound effect picked up by the violins moments later. At the finale, the percussionists barked like a dog and from somewhere in the section someone created the sound of a cat hissing.

The orchestra also shined on Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kiji” Suite that featured solo turns from nearly every instrument.

Tucson Desert Song Festival continues Feb. 14-16 with Ballet Tucson’s “From Tucson With Love,” a collaboration with Tucson Guitar Society featuring vocalist Carlos Zapién and the guitar trio of Misael Barraza Díaz, Andrés Pantoja and Diana Schaible.

The program includes the world premiere of “Barrio Veijo” created by Ballet Tucson principal choreographer and associate artistic director Chieko Imada. The piece is set to music by the seminal Chicano songwriter and barrio native Lalo Guerrero. For information and tickets, visit ballettucson.org.

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