Operas

Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini
L’ Enfant Prodigue by Claude Debussy

Linus Lerner, Music Director

Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra (SASO) & local opera company Passion Project: Opera! bring opera back to the Old Pueblo with two compelling and dramatic one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini and Claude Debussy.

Experience Suor Angelica and L’Enfant Prodigue, works centered on religious themes of redemption, in atmospheres perfectly suited to bring these works to life: beloved churches around Tucson. Read more about the operas here.

SASO has performed great operatic works such as Verdi’s Aida abroad to great acclaim, and now this accomplished group of local musicians has partnered with Passion Project: Opera! to bring their talents home to Tucson.

Passion Project: Opera!, co-founded by seasoned local opera singers Korby Myrick and Barbara Pritchard, seeks to create emotionally moving and relatable musical experiences that can only be captured by performing smaller, more intimate operas that have otherwise been ignored in favor of familiar and spectacular productions. Previous performances have included The Poisoned Kiss by Ralph Vaughan Williams and a lesser-known La Boheme by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Learn more about Passion Project: Opera!

About the Operas

Suor Angelica, a Florentine noblewoman, has been compelled by her family to take the veil following a youthful fault, and for seven years has been waiting tidings from her family or friends. At last, Angelica’s aunt, the Princess, has come to call on her only to tell her that she has come in order that she may sign away her inheritance, which is necessary due to the coming wedding of the nun’s younger sister.

Angelica, desperate for news of her family, asks after her illegitimate child, “the baby whom she had seen and kissed only once.” The Princess informs Angelica that her child had died two years before. Overcome with grief, Angelica gives up her inheritance and seeks suicide to be reunited with her child.

L’Enfant Prodigue opens with Lia, a mother mourning the absence of her wayward son, Azaël, who has left home with his inheritance in search of worldly pleasures. He has been gone several years and Lia is heartbroken and desperately misses him, while her husband, Siméon, tries to comfort her.

Azaël, now a changed man, returns home in rags, filled with remorse and apprehension. He is reluctant to face his family, especially his father. Lia recognizes Azaël and joyfully welcomes him home, forgiving him immediately. Siméon, initially hesitant, eventually relents and embraces his son as well.