Opera Orlando Presents A Holiday Double Bill, Fun For The Whole Family

Opera Orlando brings a world premiere and a holiday mash-up to the Dr. Phillips Center, December 6-8, with 4 Lost Santas and Menotti’s classic Amahl and the Night Visitors. 4 Lost Santas is a comic Christmas Opera commissioned by Opera Orlando and based on an original concept by Gabriel Preisser with music by Spicer Carr and a libretto by Rose Freeman and Spicer Carr. This fun, family-friendly piece is a seamless lead-in to Menotti’s more sacred and heartfelt work, and this combo promises to be an ideal remedy for the hustle and bustle of the season.

“We have produced Amahl and the Night Visitors in three of our nine seasons, and each time, I have wanted to find a way to expand this one-act into more of a holiday feast for our audiences,” states Opera Orlando general director Gabriel Preisser. “I also wanted it to be something fun and a true companion piece for Amahl. I sketched out the idea of a barbershop of Santas whose car breaks down on their way to a Christmas gig, only to be rescued by a mom and son who are on their way to star in a local community theater production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and the creative team of Spicer Carr and Rose Freeman took that idea and ran with it! This whole show- within-a-show concept is going to be something special, and I am so excited to share this double bill with our audience and feel all the warmth, mirth, and joy of the season through this funny, yet poignant new holiday tradition.”

Conductor Kyle Naig returns to Opera Orlando to partner with co-librettist and stage director Rose Freeman to lead this premiere production. Mr. Naig was last seen at the piano for another Opera Orlando double bill, The Marriage Contract and Gianni Schicchi at Bella Collina. This season, he serves as guest music staff at LA Opera for their production of Madama Butterfly and Houston Grand Opera for Breaking the Waves, while maintaining an active conducting schedule at several other companies including Pacific Opera Project, Opera Laguna, and Pocket Opera. Since 2022, Mr. Naig has held a faculty music staff position at San Francisco Conservatory, and in 2020, he  graduated from the Houston Grand Opera Studio, where he worked on productions of Aïda, Saul, Don Giovanni, Florencia en el Amazonas, and La bohème, as well as the premiere workshop of El Milagro del Recuerdo in Mexico City. Mr. Naig is also a recitalist and arranger.

Rose Freeman is an award winning stage director, teacher, writer, and producer of theater and opera, making their Company debut with 4 Lost Santas. Operatic stage direction credits include the 2023 revival of Spears’ Jason and the Argonauts for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Puccini’s La bohème with Lyric Opera of the North,  Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with Opera Mississippi, Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Harrower Opera, Stravinsky’s L'Historie Du Soldat at Temple University. As a founding member of Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, they have directed Han Lash’s Beowulf, Kamala Sankaram’s The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace, Juliet Palmer's Stitch, Daniel Crozier's With Blood With Ink, Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters, Mohammed Fairouz’s Sumeida’s Song, and both Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium and The Consul.  Rose Freeman was a directing fellow at Wolftrap Opera from 2020-2022, and assisted on Floyd’s Susannah, Verdi’s La traviata, Bologne de Saint-George’s L’Amant Anonyme and Holst’s Savitri, while also directing the studio artist scenes program. ​

Spicer Carr is also making his Company debut as the composer, co-librettist, and co-orchestrator of 4 Lost Santas. He is a New York City based composer-lyricist, specializing in Musical Theater, Opera, and Theatre for Young Audiences. As a queer, autistic writer, he seeks out similarly underrepresented voices, and uses his unique perspective to help explore their stories. His current projects include Fluffernutter, a mono-opera on memory and fluff commissioned by Opera Praktikos and Too Bright to See, a new musical based on the award winning book by Kyle Lukoff about a trans boy named Bug discovering themself. He has also composed a song cycle U Up?, musicals Chance the Snapper and The Rocking Boy, and the opera Sabbath. His work has been developed, supported, and performed by Cincinnati Song Initiative, The National Association of Teachers of Singing, Quintessence Theatre Group, Opera America, The TYE Center, MusiCoLab, Temple University Theater, The Purple Crayon Players, and Really Spicy Opera.

This original pairing is a perfect balance between the commercial and sacred side of the holidays, told by a fantastic cast featuring Opera Orlando Studio Artists Erika Vasallo, Pedro Valdez, and Thandolwethu Mamba, and members of the Opera Orlando Youth Company in the intimate setting of the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater.

OPERA  FOR THE  HOLIDAYS

— DOUBLE BILL —

4 Lost Santas  |  music by Spicer Carr and libretto by Rose Freeman + Spicer Carr

based on a concept by Gabriel Preisser

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Amahl and the Night Visitors  |  music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti

sung in English with English and Spanish supertitles 

Friday  |  December 6, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday  |  December 7, 2024 at 2 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.

Sunday  |  December 8, 2024 at 2 p.m.

age advisory: G

Estimated run time is 90 minutes with no intermission. A pre-show talk, free for all ticket holders, will be held on stage 50 minutes prior to each performance.

Individual tickets for 4 Lost Santas / Amahl and the Night Visitors start at just $49 and are on sale now through the Dr. Phillips Center’s Bill & Mary Darden Box Office (445 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando), online at www.DrPhillipsCenter.org, or by calling (407) 358-6603. 

See YOU at the Opera!

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About Opera Orlando:     Celebrating, expanding, and sharing the world’s greatest art form, the 2024-25 season will mark Opera Orlando’s ninth season producing high-quality operatic entertainment and educational programs that engage Central Florida audiences.

Stay up to date with Opera Orlando’s season via their website at www.OperaOrlando.org, and follow and like the Opera’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X accounts to share in all the Company has planned for 2024-25.