Florida Grand Opera's 2014-15 Season:

Miami, Florida, September 17, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Florida Grand Opera (FGO) announces its 74th continuous season of producing opera featuring four mainstage productions for its 2014-15 Season, which will include Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul.

“I am proud to bring an eclectic mix of repertoire to the stage for the 2014-15 Season, and thrilled that for the first time in FGO’s history we will perform Menotti’s The Consul, a gripping American drama that stunned Broadway audiences in 1950 during its remarkable 40 week run,” said Susan T. Danis, General Director and CEO of Florida Grand Opera.  “This season will be exciting and thrilling for both first time attendees and seasoned opera lovers.”

Madama Butterfly

Puccini’s opera is loosely based on a true story and depicts a shattering clash of cultures.  While stationed in Japan, the American naval officer Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton obtains through an unscrupulous marriage broker a 15 year old geisha known as Butterfly.  He plans to amuse himself until he can take a real wife from America.

When he goes back out to sea, everyone believes that Butterfly has been abandoned, but her faith that he will return to her is steadfast.  He does return, but with an American wife, and plans to claim Butterfly’s child who was born after his departure.  Hopeless and left with nothing, Butterfly sees suicide as her only option, and re-employs the very knife her father had used to end his own life. 

Madama Butterfly gained immense worldwide popularity during the early 1900s and

has remained among the most frequently performed operas.  Puccini’s spectacular gift for sureness of purpose, both musically and theatrically, is nowhere more evident than here.  Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy some of opera’s most famous music and powerful drama. 

SCHEDULE | Madama Butterfly

**Sung in Italian with projected titles in English and Spanish**

MIAMI  ◙  Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County / Ziff Ballet Opera House

November 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 2014

FORT LAUDERDALE  ◙  Broward Center for the Performing Arts / Au-Rene Theater

December 4, 6, 2014

Così Fan Tutte

Following the triumphs of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte is the third and final collaboration of the gifted librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte and the brilliant Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  But among these three key monuments of Western musical culture, Così has been the least understood.  It was once considered risqué, if not immoral, and during the 1800s Mozart’s music was frequently performed with an entirely different libretto bearing no resemblance to the original.

The theme of testing the constancy of women by improvising a trial can be traced into deep antiquity, but the treatment provided by Mozart and Da Ponte deliciously dissects the social mores of the late 1700s and demonstrates the young composer’s astonishing skill.

Two young men make a bet with an older friend that their fiancées will remain faithful under any circumstances.  The friend, claiming to know better, arranges for the men to leave the girls, who are sisters, and then return in disguise.  The girls waver, and soon fall headlong for each other’s fiancé.  When the mean-spirited trick is revealed, all we can know for certain is that those relationships will never be the same.

SCHEDULE | Così Fan Tutte

**Sung in Italian with projected titles in English and Spanish**

MIAMI  ◙  Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County / Ziff Ballet Opera House

January 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 2015

FORT LAUDERDALE  ◙  Broward Center for the Performing Arts / Au-Rene Theater

February 12, 14, 2015

The Pearl Fishers (Les Pêcheurs de Perles)

On his way to creating what was to become the world’s most popular opera, in 1863 Georges Bizet composed this atmospheric tale of love, friendship, and sacrifice. Twelve years later, Bizet’s death at 36 during the first performances of Carmen was a tragic loss to French musical life, and to the future of opera especially.

The public loved The Pearl Fishers at its premiere, but many of the critics were hostile, just as they would be with Carmen later on.  In both cases, the public was the better judge.

The Pearl Fishers, inspired by the European infatuation with all things Oriental, enfolded those heady elements within the well-established French operatic tradition.  After Bizet’s death, it was revived regularly, and today is seen in most of the world’s opera houses.  Foreshadowing the genius that Bizet was soon to demonstrate with Carmen, The Pearl Fishers contains one of the most famous tenor-baritone duets in all of opera.

SCHEDULE | The Pearl Fishers

**Sung in French with projected titles in English and Spanish**

MIAMI  ◙  Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County / Ziff Ballet Opera House

February 28, March 1, 3, 6, 7, 2015

FORT LAUDERDALE  ◙  Broward Center for the Performing Arts / Au-Rene Theater

March 12, 14, 2015

The Consul

Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul premiered in 1950 and enjoyed a spectacular Broadway run of 269 performances as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Music.  In a world still recoiling from World War II and coming to terms with the grim realities of the Cold War, its themes of suppression, governmental indifference, and despair found resonance around the world.

The Consul takes place in an unnamed country where Magda Sorel is desperate to obtain visas to enable her family to emigrate and escape persecution.  The endless waiting erodes what hope she still clings to, until a tragic and shattering deed ends both her life and the opera.

Immediately following The Consul’s New York run, it was presented at Milan’s La Scala in an extraordinary nod to the importance of this new American opera. One of The Consul’s highlights is Magda’s aria, “To This We’ve Come,” which became an anthem for oppressed people everywhere.

SCHEDULE | The Consul 

**Sung in English with projected titles in English and Spanish**

MIAMI  ◙  Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County / Ziff Ballet Opera House

May 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 2015

Subscriptions for the 2014-15 Season start at only $40. FGO’s Box Office is located at the Doral Center on 8390 NW 25 St., Doral, FL 33122, and is open to the public from 10am to 4pm, Monday through Friday during the season. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (800) 741-1010 or online at www (dot) FGO (dot) org.

Sponsorship opportunities for productions and events throughout the season are available. For more information, contact Individual Giving Officer, Max Kellogg at 305-854-1643 or mkellogg (@) fgo (dot) org