Portland Opera to Host Free Day of Opera Sunday

Portland Opera will throw open its doors Sunday for a free day of opera featuring Opera a la Cart performances, a Portland Opera To Go Hansel and Gretel open rehearsal, an open house with costume shop tours, and culminating with the Chorus Open Rehearsal. All events will happen at the company's headquarters, the Hampton Opera Center, 211 SE Caruthers Street which is adjacent to the east side of the Tilikum crossing and off Water Avenue just south of Omsi.

OPERApalooza performances will include selections from productions in its 2017 season. Love runs through the season - stories of great love on an operatic scale: love gained and lost in La Bohème; the reverential and inspired love from afar of Don Quixote for Dulcinea in Man of la Mancha; the all consuming passion of one's first love in Mozart's Così fan tutte; God's enduring love for a homeless child who is united with the spirit of her grandmother in David Lang's profoundly moving The Little Match Girl Passion; and the pleasure of courtship, seduction, and sensual love in Monteverdi's Songs of Love and War.

Opera a la Cart is the mobile performance venue for Portland Opera that brings opera directly to community events and gathering spots. Inspired by Portland's celebrated food-cart culture, students in the School of Architecture's Center for Public Interest Design at Portland State University collaborated with Portland Opera staff on the project. The project team made a series of provocative, functional modifications to both the interior and exterior of a formerly ordinary Grumman Olson truck.

A "menu" of operatic specials du jour is offered for each performance. Audience members are invited to order up bite-size arias, duets, and ensemble pieces sung by singers from Portland Opera's chorus, Resident Artists program, and guest artists. For more information, please visit PortlandOpera.org.