(WB) About 200 people gathered at the outdoor Sylvan Theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument on June 5, for a rally and march to promote the debunked belief that people can change their sexual orientation from gay to straight through faith in Jesus Christ.

“I think opera as we currently know it is on its way out,” said R.B. Schlather. “I personally don’t like sitting in theaters where there are thousands of people and you’re far away from the stage. That’s not satisfying.”

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) has been awarded an Opera America 2022 Opera Grant for Women Stage Directors and Conductors.

Several South Florida performing arts recently announced their 2022-23 seasons, including Florida Grand Opera, Slow Burn Theatre Co. and Boca Stage.

While the heyday of classical opera may have been during the 18th and 19th centuries, Florida Grand Opera (FGO) travels back in time to the not-so-distant past with its next production, Gregory Spears’ “Fellow Travelers.”

Even though Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Bertati wrote their comic opera “El Matrimonio Secreto” (“The Secret Marriage”) more than 225 years ago, the production opening Florida Grand Opera’s (FGO) season this weekend will seem very familiar to Miami audiences.

Is opera in America on its last breath? For decades, the proverbial canary in the coalmine has been singing warnings of aging audiences and certainly the Great Recession of 2008 dealt a serious blow to companies that relied on gifts from wealthy benefactors and their investments. The music world was shocked when the venerable New York City Opera, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s “People’s Opera,” unexpectedly closed last year.

All season long, opera companies around the world have celebrated the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi. Florida Grand Opera pays tribute to the Italian composer with its own grand production of Verdi’s first major success, “Nabucco.”

South Florida opera fans will experience a unique double bill – Puccini’s only comic opera and a rare operatic sequel at the Arsht and Broward Centers. 

A horrifying incident in LGBT history is the subject of a new opera by Fort Lauderdale composer Michael Ross.

South Florida boasts one of the most vibrant regional theater scenes in the country. This winter and spring, audiences can enjoy classic  American plays at Palm Beach Dramaworks, hit musicals at  Actors Playhouse,  Maltz and The Wick,  LGBT-themed works at  Island City Stage and world premieres by local playwrights at Zoetic Stage.

But, there’s more....

For the past 25 years or so, it’s been in vogue for daring theater and opera directors to yank the works of the masters from the settings they were intended and explore their eternal truths in new contexts.

The tragic 1998 murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard has inspired a play and film adaptation, “The Laramie Project,” numerous literary works and, most importantly, a hate crimes bill passed by Congress a decade later. Shepard’s story is now being told on the opera stage.

By its very nature, opera is melodramatic and perfectly suited to fanciful tales of powerful pharaohs and quixotic Chinese princesses. When most people think of opera, they conjure up stereotypical images of Valkyries in winged helmets with busty breastplates or massive statues come to life to torment the sinful.

Florida Grand Opera will finally be returning to the stage with live performances, after sitting out much of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Orchestra Miami and Artistic Director Elaine Rinaldi will celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) in Miami with a special concert on Saturday, April 9 performed in a restored Coast Guard hangar on Dinner Key.

Whether old adages or worn clichés, “the more things change the more they stay the same,” and “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” almost always ring true.

Broadway fans in Miami are being treated to the perfect mix of new and beloved musicals at the Arsht Center’s Ziff Ballet Opera House.

The new year is still “new,” but most Americans have already shed those optimistic (or pesky) resolutions.