Scott Cantrell

Classical Music Critic

scantrell@dallasnews.com

Published: 04 May 2012 06:45 PM

Conventional wisdom holds that people want comfort-food entertainment during tough economic times and that arts organizations should program accordingly. Fort Worth Opera keeps defying that supposed wisdom.

This year's Fort Worth Opera Festival, running from Saturday through June 3, promises two audience favorites. But even Puccini's Tosca and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, remember, are about uncomfortable intersections of power and sex. The festival also includes two recent American operas, Jake Heggie's Three Decembers and Mark Adamo's Lysistrata. The former is about contemporary family dysfunction, the latter about the age-old conflict between love and war.

"I like to do shows that say something about the world we live in," says FWO general director Darren K. Woods. "We're still fighting wars, families still have troubles and the aristocracy is still doing things to poor people."

Fort Worth's productions of operatic warhorses now draw some really fine singers. This year's festival opener, Tosca, brings back Carter Scott, a thrilling Turandot four years ago, in the title role. Michael Chioldi reprises the role of Scarpia, which he sang imposingly in 2005, and powerhouse tenor Roger Honeywell portrays Cavaradossi.

And the company has attracted national attention with daring programming of new and recent operas. The repertory has included world premieres of Thomas Pasatieri's Frau Margot and Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls. Other recent operas have included Peter Eötvös' Angels in America, Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox and Heggie's Dead Man Walking.

"Puccini and Mozart were trying to do the same thing back when those things were written," Woods says. "Three Decembers and Lysistrata both have warnings about adult content, but Tosca is about rape and murder. It's still tough material. Mozart was kind of a revolutionary in his day, as were Beethoven and Verdi."

This year's recent operas, both premiered by Houston Grand Opera, continue a tradition of populist American operas dating back to Copland, Barber, Carlisle Floyd, Gian Carlo Menotti and company.

The 4 year-old Three Decembers, originally titled Last Acts, is a chamber opera for just three singers and a small instrumental ensemble. It's about a self-absorbed actress of a certain age and her two adult children. It will be presented in the compact Scott Theater, the other three operas at Bass Performance Hall.

Lysistrata is a free takeoff on Aristophanes' irreverent anti-war play of the same name. Disgusted by ongoing war between Athens and Sparta, the women of both cities vow to withhold sex until their husbands lay down their arms.

"I think it's worked because we've really been committed to it," Woods says of the festival's adventurous programming. "It hasn't been like broccoli - ‘it's good for you.' I think we've been good with our marketing efforts, in trying to tell people what to expect, not just that it's contemporary opera."

Plan your life
Fort Worth Opera Festival
Tosca: Saturday, May 20(m) and 25 and June 2.
The Marriage of Figaro: May 19 and 27(m) and June 1.
Lysistrata: May 26 and June 3(m).
Three Decembers: May 13(m), 18, 20, 26(m) and 31 and June 2(m).

Three Decembers at the Scott Theater, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth.

All other performances at Bass Performance Hall, Fourth and Commerce, Fort Worth. Evening performances at 7:30 p.m.; matinees (marked "m") at 2 p.m. Season subscriptions $70 to $445; single tickets $18 to $180. 817-731-0726, fwopera.org.