Pittsburgh Opera To Perform Art Deco Production Of SEMELE Next Month

Pittsburgh Opera will present the first-ever Pittsburgh performances of George Frideric Handel's baroque gem Semele at its headquarters in the Strip District from May 8th through 20th.

Semele is a timeless tale from Greek antiquity about the pitfalls of ambition, vanity, and making open-ended promises.

Stage Director Kristine McIntyre, whose most recent collaboration with Pittsburgh Opera was the critically-acclaimed 'film noir' production of Mozart's Don Giovanni in October 2019, is giving Semele a stylish Roaring Twenties Art Deco treatment.

Pittsburgh Opera will partner with Chatham Baroque for Semele. Founded in 1990, Chatham Baroque continues to excite local, national, and international audiences with dazzling technique and lively interpretations of 17th- and 18th-century music played on authentic period instruments.

Pittsburgh Opera will have live, socially-distant audiences at all six performances. Pittsburgh Opera is maintaining its comprehensive COVID-19 safety protocols, which it used most recently at its successful April performances of Charlie Parker's Yardbird including reduced seating capacity, mandatory mask wearing, health screenings and temperature checks for all people entering the building, and more. Full details are available on Pittsburgh Opera's COVID-19 Safety Protocols webpage.

All six performances are currently sold out, but there is room on the waiting list. The Friday, May 14th performance at 7:30PM will be livestreamed free of charge on both Pittsburgh Opera's YouTube channel and Facebook page. The livestream is sponsored by UPMC.

Patrons may sign up for the livestream at pittsburghopera.org/SemeleRSVP to both receive a reminder email before the broadcast with links to view the livestream and to unlock premium content, including the official program book and the Pre-Opera talk podcast.