Gene Myers

For its next act, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh reinvents itself in its 35th year with SummerFest, a three-week celebration of the performing and visual arts for all ages. This new regional summer music festival fills three weeks with opera sung in English, concerts, recitals, cabaret, visual arts, and the SummerFest Fringe, June 29 - July 15, 2012. The festival takes place in the intimate theaters of The Hillman Center for Performing Arts on the idyllic grounds of Shady Side Academy, just 10 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. SummerFest invites everyone who loves music and theater to step into some of opera's most beloved works, to experience a suite of witty world premiere music dramas, to discover seldom-performed Mozart masterpieces, and to enjoy an array of free outdoor performances and events.

For its next act, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh reinvents itself in its 35th year with SummerFest, a three-week celebration of the performing and visual arts for all ages. This new regional summer music festival fills three weeks with opera sung in English, concerts, recitals, cabaret, visual arts, and the SummerFest Fringe, June 29 - July 15, 2012. The festival takes place in the intimate theaters of The Hillman Center for Performing Arts on the idyllic grounds of Shady Side Academy, just 10 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. SummerFest invites everyone who loves music and theater to step into some of opera's most beloved works, to experience a suite of witty world premiere music dramas, to discover seldom-performed Mozart masterpieces, and to enjoy an array of free outdoor performances and events.

Ragtime, the Musical, is an epic tale of a young America played out in song and dance. It paints a nostalgic and powerful portrait of life at the turn of the twentieth century. The musical melds three distinct stories that poignantly illustrate history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and love and hate.