OPERA READING PROJECT is a Minnesota-based professional career development tool for singers.
Our mission is to foster artistry for vocal performers and audiences through holistic opera and vocal arts education, storytelling and human connection.
Upcoming Performances
Opera Reading Project presents its first ever performance of staged opera scenes! Featuring excerpts from Der Wald (Smyth), Tosca (Puccini), Hamlet (Thomas), and Peter Grimes (Britten).
In Der Wald, Ethyl Smyth’s setting of a German libretto by Henry Brewster, Iolanthe becomes fascinated with a young woodcutter named Heinrich, who is engaged to the peasant-girl Röschen, and attempts to seduce him to her whims.
In Ambroise Thomas’s French-language adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play, Hamlet’s grief and confusion over his father’s death are interrupted by the arrival of Ophélie, who asks for reassurance of their mutual love. Ophélie’s brother, Laërte, enters to bid his sister farewell and entrusts her care to Hamlet.
In a poignant Act II quartet from Britten’s Peter Grimes, Ellen, Auntie, and the two Nieces express their disdain and judgement of the titular outcast fisherman, whom they see as rising from nothing and bringing ruin upon all.
In Act III of Puccini’s Tosca, Cavaradossi and Tosca are reunited after his imprisonment and the death of Scarpia, hopeful that they may be able to flee their tragic circumstances.
"I search for the language that is also yours—almost all our language has been taxed by war."
We close the 2025-6 Season with ORP’s first orchestral production, featuring the 1990 chamber opera Hydrogen Jukebox. Drawing upon the Beat poetry of Allen Ginsberg, this music/theater piece by Philip Glass is a portrait of America that covers the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, as seen by the composer and poet, as well as the show’s original director Jerome Sirlin.
Its content ranges from Ginsberg’s highly personal poems to his reflections on various social issues, including the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, drugs, eastern philosophy, and environmental awareness. Delivered through six vocal parts representing archetypal American characters alongside a spoken word artist, this innovative chamber opera is as timely and relevant today as when it was premiered.
Featuring vocalists Felix Aguilar Tomlinson, Emily Cottam, Madison Holtze, David Nelson, Kristina Rodel, and Justin Spenner under the musical direction of Lara Bolton, with spoken word poet SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE.
So what exactly is an opera reading anyway?
An opera reading is a concert performance of a selected operatic work. Typically unstaged—and therefore eschewing the various complications of a fully produced theatrical show—this format encourages performers to exercise more vibrant textual and musical storytelling, with a greater focus on their own craft and artistic development while also participating in a collaborative creative process.
Got questions? Check out our Opera Readings FAQ or get in touch with us directly at operareadingproject@gmail.com.