Fresno Grand Opera unveils ambitious new seasons

Matthew Buckman, the general director of the Fresno Grand Opera, announced Friday, April 8, its big productions for the 2016-17 season – and the 2017-18 one as well.

With this two-year programming arc, Buckman and his board of directors made clear they are hoping to increase the company’s artistic connection to the community, not just in terms of musical appeal but also spatially, emphasizing the central San Joaquin Valley as a special place.

“There are a lot of great stories that can be tied to the Valley,” Buckman says.

The opening mainstage opera planned for the next season is Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Ned Rorem’s “Our Town,” an adaptation of the classic Thornton Wilder play. (It opens Jan. 28, 2017.)

Though the work isn’t related specifically to the Valley, it’s a fitting title to kick off the four mainstage local premieres planned for the following two seasons. “Our Town,” which will be performed in the more intimate Fresno Memorial Auditorium rather than the larger Saroyan Theatre, celebrates small-town America in a way few literary works ever have. Fresno might not be the same “town” it was in 1901, but the roots are still there.

The next two mainstage productions planned are more specifically connected to California’s agricultural heartland: Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men,” adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel, which will play May 6, 2017; and the company’s big coup, Ricky Ian Gordon’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” which will play in January 2018.

The production of “Grapes” will be the title’s West Coast premiere. Written by Gordon in 2016, the opera – based on Steinbeck’s great work – will have only been performed a few times when it opens in Fresno. It was commissioned by Minnesota Opera and Utah Festival Opera, and though it received good reviews, Buckman says the opera didn’t have “legs” because of its three and a half hour length and huge 80-piece orchestra.

But it’s getting a second chance. “Grapes of Wrath” will be performed in 2017 by Opera Theatre St. Louis with a minor rewrite.

In order for it to come to Fresno, Gordon agreed to cutting the show by an hour and reducing the orchestra to 30 members, which will make it much easier to produce for regional opera companies. (Fresno Grand Opera will pay for this with the help of grant money from the Irvine Foundation.)

The fourth mainstage production, to be performed in May 2018, will be Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (another premiere, surprisingly, for Fresno Grand Opera.) But even this more “traditional” title will have a wrinkle. Buckman plans to “recreate the experience of going to a world premiere of an opera in Mozart’s time, complete with a candlelit theatre, period costumes for performer and audience alike, and extended intermissions for eating and drinking with friends.”

While “Our Town,” “Of Mice and Men” and “Grapes of Wrath” are recent operas, Buckman emphasizes that they are far from the atonal, avant-garde works that many associate with contemporary opera.

“For me, traditional music means beautiful music in the tradition of the Italian works we know and love,” he says. “In that way, I consider these operas traditional.”

Fresno Grand Opera is partnered with Modesto’s Townsend Opera, sharing the same administrative staff and season, so the lineup will be presented in Modesto.

There’s lots going on in the Fresno 2016-17 season off the mainstage as well. The company is presenting one performance event every month of the season. The company is starting a cabaret series at The Republican restaurant downtown featuring noted singers from Fresno Grand Opera productions. “We want to have a little bit sexier environment for the cabaret show,” Buckman says.

The popular recital series at Mia Cuppa Caffe continues with the Music & Verse Recital Series, which includes an Oct. 20 performance of new music created by Fresno-based poets and student composers at Fresno State.

The Van Ness series, which has drawn audiences for years with its Christmas and Broadway themes performed at the First Congregational Church, expands with a July 24 “Gospel on Van Ness” performance.

The season also includes a chance to celebrate at a Sept. 23 opening gala with a Roaring ‘20s theme event at Frank’s Place. From the looks of the season(s) announcement, it seems as if opera fans will have a lot to party about.