Arizona Bold: Arizona Opera's $5 Million Artistic Initiative Campaign
Arizona Opera announces the public phase of Arizona Bold, a new artistic initiative to build a stronger statewide community by presenting works that focus on Arizona's history and wealth of natural, cultural, and economic diversity.
Arizona Bold: $5 million capital campaign to support new repertoire in Arizona has raised $3.1 million in 10 months
In September 2014, Arizona Opera announced the initiative, along with a corresponding 4-year capital campaign, to raise $5 million, specifically designated for community based works. $3.1 million of the $5 million campaign has already been raised in the first 10 months since the campaign was internally launched. The company hopes to raise the remaining $1.9 million over the next three seasons.
Arizona Opera's first Arizona Bold presentation, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, featuring the world-renowned Mariachi Vargas, opened the company's 2014/15 Season. The company became the first opera company to present the opera as part of its subscription season. Ticket sales for Cruzar la Cara de la Luna broke nationwide records, with Phoenix and Tucson attendance achieving the highest levels of sales than any other market that had presented the piece.
Arizona Opera 2015/16 Season Features Arizona Bold Productions
Arizona Opera's 2015/16 Season will kick off with two Arizona Bold presentations, Arizona Lady, the U.S opera company premiere of Emmerich Kálmán's musical set on an Arizona cattle ranch, and Florencia en el Amazonas, the lush, mystical piece written by the celebrated Mexican composer Daniel Catán.
Jewish Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán fled Germany during WWII, later writing Arizona Lady as a love letter to the Southwest, his new home. The story centers around a horse raised in Arizona that wins the Kentucky Derby, and features a lush score reminiscent of the greatest Hollywood's Golden-Age Movie Musicals.
Equally lush is the intimately romantic score of Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas, which focuses on the journey of a celebrated singer who travels the Amazon River in search of her missing husband, a butterfly hunter. Inspired by the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Florencia en el Amazonas was the first grand Spanish-language opera commissioned by a U.S. opera house. It has subsequently become a smash hit around the globe.
In Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona Opera will host free Community Festivals in advance of both Arizona Bold works, with public lectures, films, events and performances designed to explore the themes of these important works.
"The fabric of Arizona is so rich, comprised of many different cultures and backgrounds. Arizona Bold seeks to expand the perception of our art form by presenting stories worth singing that are of particular interest to our diverse communities. Though we are all individuals with our own histories, we are unified as we sit in that darkened theater, sharing the same human experience." - Ryan Taylor, General Director, Arizona Opera.
"Arizona Opera has emerged as a national leader in serving new audiences through diverse programing and strong partnerships. This work is changing the perception of opera and building the company's value as a cultural resource across the community. While it is increasing its public service in Arizona, Arizona Opera is becoming a point of reference for other companies around the country." - Marc Scorca, President/CEO, Opera America.
About Arizona Opera
Founded in 1971, Arizona Opera is the state's only professional opera company that produces fully-staged opera performances as well as in-school touring productions, and outreach programs to reach over 70,000 schoolchildren and adults annually. Since its inception, Arizona Opera has produced over 200 fully-staged operatic masterpieces and concerts including Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle; and in 2014 the company embarked on a new artistic initiative, Arizona Bold which incorporates new repertoire into each season, works that celebrate the rich cultural fabric that makes up our diverse state.
The 2015/16 Arizona Opera Season is presented by CopperPoint Mutual Insurance.