Opera Santa Barbara is presenting a special holiday concert on Wednesday, December 5 featuring soprano Marcy Stonikas and pianist Christopher Allen. Part of the Opera on the Go! series, this recital is Opera Santa Barbara’s holiday gift to the community. Enjoy works by Mozart, Barber,...

Opera Santa Barbara will celebrate the opening of our 12/13 Season in grand style with a Gala Dinner on Friday, November 2 at 5:00 pm in the McCune Founders Room of the Granada Theatre. The evening will feature valet parking in front of the Granada Theatre,...

“On the hill opposite ours lived a little tea-house girl; her name was Chô-san, Miss Butterfly.  She was so sweet and delicate that everyone was in love with her.  In time we learned that she had a lover… quite nice, but very temperamental, of a...

Opera Santa Barbara is starting an opera book club. The club will meet every 6-8 weeks in the new “lounge” at our downtown offices. Each meeting will include wine and cheese, to discuss a book which coordinates with one of the operas in our season...

Would you like to be a Geisha this year for Halloween? Or how about Carmen and Don José the Toreador? Opera Santa Barbara is cleaning out our costume storage facility, and just in time for Halloween we will host a special Costume Sale on Saturday,...

We continue our popular Opera on the GO! series on October 24th at 5:30pm when we give you an intriguing look into the lifestyle of a Japanese geisha, when special guests Takako Wakita and Heather Sterling will transform model Kaita Lepore from girl to geisha...

Opera Santa Barbara's Artistic Director Jose Maria Condemi chats with soprano Mihoko Kinoshita, who takes on the title role of 'Madame Butterfly' this November.
JMC: As a Japanese-born singer, how do you approach performing one of the Italian repertoire’s key roles, based on a character so close to your own culture? MK: I think my interpretation of the character is changing; she's not solely a Japanese character now. My first Cio-Cio-San was at the Santa Margherita Opera Festival in Italy; I created the character to be gentle and quiet – more traditionally Japanese. Then I lived in Italy for more than five years. After a few productions, I really started thinking about the text, which is so important to Italian opera - especially in Puccini's work! I'm always thinking about the words; this is Italian music with Italian words. I’ve come to consider ‘Butterfly’ an Italian opera first, and a Japanese story second.

Opera Santa Barbara's Artistic Director Jose Maria Condemi is hosting a fabulous trip to San Francisco from Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 to see Tosca starring Angela Gheorghiu (pictured at left), directed by Mr. Condemi. The trip will include three nights at the spectacular Renaissance...

“O PATRIA MIA!” Bibhu Mohapatra Designs Glammy Couture for Aida [by Benjamin-Émile Le Hay] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="alignleft" width="500"] Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.[/caption] There are no elephants and gaudy sculptures to be found in Francesca Zambello’s staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s epic Aida, which recently kicked off the 2012...

Opera's Francesca Zambello Talks With Huffington Post Francesca Zambello ranks among the world's most prolific opera and musical theater directors.  "We're all pursuing the question of how to make opera more relevant for today. I believe that if content is relevant, people will make that connection....

L'Elisir d'Amore, March 2016, Photo by David Bazemore