Opera Orlando is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a season of new twists on established favorites and performances that celebrate the future.
Opera Orlando rose from the ashes of Orlando Opera, a 50-plus-year beloved area institution that went under during tough economic times.
Opera Orlando General Director Gabriel Preisser sat down with me for a look back at local Opera history, a look forward to the group’s future, and what’s in store as the 10th anniversary season begins with “La Boheme.”
“We’re excited to be celebrating ten years - it just flew by - and we wanted to use this season to look back at the past ten years, but also look forward to the future,” said Preisser.
For instance, Preisser said, the opera has put a new spin on “La Boheme” without changing the music. This version of the beloved classic opera takes place in Shanghai in the 1930s instead of its original placement in Paris’s Latin Quarter in the 1830s.
Preisser, noting that Shanghai is sometimes known as the “Paris of the East,” explained that the Chinese city was booming in that era. “It was a multicultural, very technologically advanced city at that time, that had a French concession, had a Latin Quarter, very much like Paris had at the time that ‘La Boheme’ was written,” he said. “So our Bohemians are Chinese in this production, and it's mostly an Asian American cast.”
Also waiting in the wings of the 10th anniversary season are “Silent Night” and “All is Calm,” two different stories told in different ways about the same historical moment: the Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War One. A spontaneous but short-lived cease-fire developed between British and German soldiers spending Christmas Day in opposing trenches, and moments of peace turned into carol singing, exchanging of gifts, and even a football game in one famous case. Preisser said the opera will offer special shows for veterans.
Preisser started working as Opera Orlando’s first General Director ten years ago, when the company was formed. It came together just a few years after the venerable 50-year-old Orlando Opera company had to close its doors in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession.
Preisser said that if he could offer advice to the 2016 version of himself, he would counsel, “Always hire people that know more than you do. You never want to be the smartest person in the room. You always want to hire people that have expertise in their field, that they know more and can bring more to the conversation than you currently have.”
After a moment, he added, “And to stay calm and breathe deeply.”
