dell’Arte Opera Presents 15th Annual Summer Opera Festival

Hailed for its “compelling and innovative programming (WQXR Radio),” dell’Arte Opera Ensemble presents its 2017 UNTAMED! Opera Festival as a summer share in downtown New York City’s La MaMa Theatre. Spotlighting the unpredictable, wild characters of opera, this year’s festival explores parallels between human, animal, and supernatural realms. dell’Arte opens the festival with two fully staged rarities: Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, which combines the two Greek myths of Jove’s seduction of Calisto and Diana’s affair with Endymion; and Leoš Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen), which tracks the intersection of animal lives with those of humans and explores their common experiences. For audiences new to opera, the festival offers a colorful tapestry of several works in UNTAMED! Opera Scenes, excerpts from Carmen, Rusalka, Pelléas et Mélisande, and more; and Wild Things, a recital of repertoire about the animal kingdom and other “untamed” creatures.