The work of composer Libby Larsen is some of the most performed in American history. She created more than 500 pieces of music -- and more than fifty CDs -- spanning every major genre, from opera and chorus, to orchestral and classical. USA Today referred to her as "the only English-speaking composer since Benjamin Britten who matches great verse with fine music so intelligently and expressively."

This weekend, Larsen will make her way to Boulder to present the first act of her operatic adaption of the timeless classic, A Wrinkle in Time. Shows will take place tonight and Saturday, June 15, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, June 16, at 2 p.m.

See also:
- The 2013 Westword Music Showcase schedule
- CU's Leigh Holman pays tribute to American opera with Susannah
- Free Negativland Shows at CU's Old Main Theatre

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Running two nights only -- tonight and tomorrow at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts -- A Journey of the Human Spirit is an incredible three-part look at life before, during and after the Holocaust. Based on composer Viktor Ullmann and librettist Peter Kien's fifty-minute opera The Emperor of Atlantis, the piece has been painstakingly set to klezmer music by Hal Aqua and the Lost Tribe and the newly created "From Darkness to Light," composed by Ofer Ben-Amots and choreographed by Garrett Ammon for Ballet Nouveau Colorado.

This work resulted from over a year of brainstorming and collaboration between Ballet Nouveau Colorado, Central City Opera, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, the Jewish Community Center. In advance of these two special showings, Stuart Raynor, CEO of the Jewish Community Center, gave Westword some insight into just how persistent Ullmann and Kien were to make sure their work survived the Holocaust -- even as both artists lost their lives.

See also:
- West Side Stories shines a light on Denver's colorful Jewish history
- Ballet Nouveau Colorado is headed for Five Points -- and Wonderbound
- Reach for the stars at the Mizel Museum with artists Monica Aiello and Martin Mendelsberg

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Wikimedia

Do you love opera, operatic television commercials or even opera-themed cartoons? This weekend's Titans of Italian Grand Opera, a show tailor-made for theater newbies and aficionados alike, is sure to be scores of fun. Conducted by world-renowned Chilean maestro Maximiano Valdes, the show will have plenty of international flavor, but local flair as well, with instrumentation by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and its affiliated chorus.

See also:
- Ben Dicke on the emo rock opera Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

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Mixing steampunk with the surreal and combining opera, theater, dance and circus arts, Luminous Thread Productions wants to give Denver a kind of show that the city has never seen before. That's what Mary Lin and Ben Sargent had in mind when they began dreaming up their unique production company four years ago. Now their dream is becoming tangible, with the first season of what they've named dreampunk, which will open October 28. And in the meantime, they're reaching out to arts lovers for donations to their Kickstarter campaign.

See also:
- Help Luminous Thread Productions kickstart their dream in Denver
- Luminous Thread: Dreampunk 2012 - 2013
- Now Showing: A Westword guide to the arts in Denver

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The curse has struck again.

"It is cursed. It is the Così curse. You can call it that," says Cabaret Otaku's Christina Marzano Haystead. For the second time in a year, the alternative opera troupe is cancelling its planned update of Mozart's famous Così Fan Tutte called Così: The Series, which was supposed to start October 7 at the Mercury Cafe.

See also:
- A Night at the Opera
- Alamo Drafthouse partners with International Film Series
- GI Joe Fest 2012 canceled

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Opera in a bar: The two go together well, as Opera on Tap demonstrates. The New York-bred monthly pastime has conquered Denver in its first year here, and has done so well it's now spread to Boulder. "We have introduced so many people to opera -- and shown how accessible it really is," says founder Eve Orenstein. "And it's a great opportunity for the local singers who perform with us, too."

See also:
- Go Figaro
- Opera on Tap taps the popular, tonight at Bender's
- A Night at the Opera

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Jade Ratcliffe / City Opera Vancouver

Retired Marine sergeant Christian Ellis has turned his tour of duty in Iraq and the aftermath of returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder into an opera titled Fallujah. This is the first opera based on the war, and offers startling, musical insight into the mind of a vet struggling with PTSD, and how it affects those around him.

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Opera on Tap

The opera singers who regularly let their hair down at Opera on Tap, the up-close-and-personal monthly bar night at Bender's Tavern, will further reveal their inner selves during tonight's installment, the Musical Month of March. And though opera is inherently musical, this "musical" refers to what blossoms on Broadway rather than at the Met.

Beginning at 8 p.m., some of our local warblers -- singers who are perhaps more familiar with the Ellie than the Met -- will be belting tunes from Kurt Weill and Stephen Sondheim, along with favorites from shows like Ragtime and Little Shop of Horrors, in operatic tones. Wonder if they'll break any glasses?

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