• Puccini’s La Boheme
• Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (sung in German with English dialogue)
• Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.

A traveling Studio Artists production, TBA, will round out the season.

A Taste of Opera and Art and Opera, fast becoming OIO traditions, will return in 2012.

Art in Opera 2011 Postcard

For the third year in a row, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point will host the Art in Opera Fine Art Group Show exhibit by Eureka Springs area artists during our 2011 performance season. Many of the artists donate prints of their work to the student performers, and also set aside a portion of the proceeds from their sales for a scholarship fund for our summer program. Twenty-one invited artists will participate in the 2011 show, exhibiting paintings in acrylic, oil, watercolor, beading, ceramic tiles, and fine art photography.

In the first year [of Art in Opera] there were just a few artists, but when Carol Saari took over the job of Chairperson, it really took off. She has such focus, dedication; and, best of all, she has an outstanding reputation in the arts community. She has done an absolutely wonderful job. — Pamela Jones, President of the Eureka Springs Opera Guild

The last two Art in Opera exhibits have been organized by Carol Saari, a Eureka Springs artist whose interest in opera comes from attending performances at Opera in the Ozarks. This past May, she exhibited art at The Queen Anne Show, the Cornerstone Bank “Bank on Art” show, “A Taste of Art” at Sparky’s Roadhouse and White Street Studio Walk at 10 White Street.

The show is for the creative opera people and for the public. A painting can contribute to the performer’s creative process as well as entertain the public at intermission. Sales of paintings contribute to the scholarship fund and I get satisfaction expressing appreciation for this excellent art form. — Carol Saari, Chairperson of Art in Opera

19 pieces were sold from the 2010 Art in Opera exhibit and artists are hoping for another successful season.

Artist Julie Kahn Valentine, who exhibited in 2010, donated prints of her Tosca painting to Opera in the Ozarks’ student performers. Photographers Edward C. Robison III, Richard Quick and Ron Lutz donated prints of their works last year, as did painters Larry Mansker, Susan DeRosa, Carol Saari, Jana Robison, Drew Gentle and Wendi La Fey. All of these artists will be exhibiting again this year.

Larry Mansker donated his original painting, “Don Giovanni,” the student performers’ favorite at last year’s exhibit, to Opera in the Ozarks to be hung in the new opera house when it is built. Larry also arranged the 2010 Art in Opera photo shoot with us for the artists.

John Robert Willer's Taxi to the Opera.
During the 2011 season, 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will be donated to the scholarship fund.

John Robert Willer donated 100% of the proceeds of his watercolor, “Lobby of the Theatre,” to the student scholarship fund and will be exhibiting again this year. All of the artists from the 2010 Art in Opera show donated 10% of their proceeds to the student scholarship fund.

The art is displayed along the back wall of the Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony Theatre where our audiences can view it as they enter to take their seats. The area is lighted during intermissions to allow for viewing. The artworks for 2011 exhibit will be based on our season: Die Fledermaus, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Little Women. Many of the finished pieces are interpretations of photos taken by the artists of the performers, the stage sets, or the opera house itself.

All but three of the 2011 season performances take place at Inspiration Point in the intimate and outdoor Inspiration Fine Arts Colony Theatre, which allows theatergoers the opportunity to see and hear our performers up close. The three performances not in our theatre will take place at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville. Art in Opera artists attend one or more of the operas and on any evening at least two of the artists are available to greet the public and answer questions about the works. Please see our calendar for all performance dates and times for the 2011 season.

In it’s third year, the Art in Opera Fine Art Group Show is already a tremendous success and we hope that the collaboration between its artists and our artists continues into a four, fifth, and 61st year.

Unfortunately, we’re still having some difficulties with our new system. If you’d like to order tickets for any of the shows in our 2011 season, please call 1 (800) 595-4849. Or you can visit our online ticking site here: opera.tix.com.

Ticket prices for performances at the Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony Theatre at Opera in the Ozarks are $25 for the first four rows and $20 for the fifth row and back. For our Arend Arts Center performances, our tickets prices are $20 for Adults and $10 for students.

We apologize for any inconvenience our ticketing troubles have caused. If you’d like more information or if you have any questions, you may still call our office at (479) 253-8595.

We want to thank all of our supporters for their patience and we hope to see you all at Inspiration Point!

Thomas Cockrell, Artistic Director

Conductor Thomas Cockrell (artisticdirector@opera.org) was appointed artistic director of Opera in the Ozarks in October 2010. No stranger to Inspiration Point, Cockrell served as its music director for the 2003, 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Cockrell is hard at work planning the 61st season of Opera in the Ozarks next summer. “I am honored and thrilled to return to Inspiration Point as artistic director. I am committed to building upon Opera in the Ozarks’ rich tradition while helping to lead it forward in an exciting period of promise. I look forward to working closely with the general director, the board and the staff to grow our program, nurturing excellence at every performance and in every artist.”

Cockrell’s opera credits include Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Die Zauberflöte, Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi for Opera Theatre of the Rockies La Bohème and Don Giovanni for Dayton Opera, La Cenerentola, Albert Herring, Il Tabarro, Lucia di Lammermoor and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Opera Colorado Artist Center, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Washington D.C.’s Summer Opera Theatre. For the Spoleto Festivals in Italy and South Carolina he has conducted symphonic, chamber and contemporary music concerts as well as served as Assistant to the Music Director for productions of Parsifal, Elektra, and Salome.

Cockrell made his professional debut as a Featured Young Artist conducting the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. Following that success Gian Carlo Menotti invited him to conduct his Maria Golovin at Spoleto Festival USA. He has served as the associate conductor of Cincinnati Opera, Opera Colorado, The Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Spoleto Festivals. Equally committed to the symphonic repertoire, Cockrell has conducted the professional symphony orchestras of Dallas, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Tucson, Louisville and Boulder, as well as several orchestras overseas.

A dedicated and gifted educator, Cockrell is in demand as a teacher of emerging conductors, recently leading master classes in Europe, Asia and Mexico as well as in the US. He served as music director of Denver Young Artists Orchestra and as a member of the conducting faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Since 2000 Cockrell has served as director of orchestral activities at the University of Arizona School of Music in Tucson, where he holds the Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair and is the director of the Rogers Institute of Orchestra and Opera. As music director of the University of Arizona Opera Theater he has conducted recent productions of The Rape of Lucretia, The Crucible, Postcard from Morocco as well as works from the traditional repertoire.

Cockrell is a graduate of Yale University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he received his doctorate. He is one of the last students of the legendary Franco Ferrara with whom he studied in Rome while serving as a founding director of La Camerata Operistica Romana. Cockrell holds a conducting diploma from L’Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy and pursued further studies at Aspen and Tanglewood.