ARIA SERIOUS?

In the first podcast of the season, Director of Community Engagement Nicolas Reveles takes an overall look at the operas coming up:  Tosca, Madama Butterfly  and  Great Scott.  We've got a lot to look forward to!

Dapper cartoonist extraordinaire, Batton Lash, stopped by our Nixon rehearsals last week and below you can find his drawings. For those not keeping up with Batton, Batton Lash is the creator of the humor/horror series Supernatural Law (aka Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre ). Lash has also written for Archie Comics and Bongo Comics. His latest project is The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse, a brand-new series Lash created for David ( V for Vendetta ) Lloyd’s online comics anthology Aces Weekly.  Lash also paints monsters in his spare time. His Bride of Frankenstein paintings will be on display at the Digital Gym beginning February 22. More on Batton Lash can be found at www.exhibitapress.com. Artwork © copyright 2015 by Batton Lash. All rights reserved.    

San Diego Opera's official unofficial cartoonist, Eric Shanower , was back last week live sketching our rehearsal of NIXON IN CHINA and below you can see the fruits of his labor. For those of you who have not been keeping up, Eric is still writing Age of Bronze, his comic book series that tells the complete story of the Trojan War, published by Image Comics. Currently being puclished by IDW also is a four-issue comic book series that he wrote, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland with artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also currently re-packaging his Oz graphic novels in oversize volumes as Adventures in Oz. Forthcoming in September 2015 from HarperCollins is his short comics story "Love Packs Heat" in the anthology Taking Aim: Power and Pain, Teens and Guns edited by Michael Cart. Also coming in fall 2015 from Dover Publications is a new printing of his illustrated children's book The Giant Garden of Oz . He's a busy guy. You can keep with Eric at his webs

Stage Director James Robinson makes his debut with San Diego Opera as the director of John Adams' Nixon in China . Robinson originated this production, created for Opera Theatre St. Louis, in 2004. Listen to him in this interview with Nicolas Reveles, as he speaks about the challenges of mounting this exciting production.

Conductor Joseph Mechavich debuted with San Diego Opera by conducting Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick a couple of seasons back. He's returned to lead John Adams' Nixon in China. In this interview with Education Director Nicolas Reveles he talks about the score as well as about the wonderful San Diego Symphony.

Portraying the role of Pat Nixon in John Adams' opera Nixon in China is soprano Maria Kanyova. She's sung the role many times in her career and takes time during this interview with Nicolas Reveles to talk about the role, the music and the dramatic challenges. Enjoy!

John Adams' brilliant opera Nixon in China is now in production here at San Diego Opera! Rehearsals began this past Tuesday and everything is going really well. Watch as Nicolas Reveles interviews the man in the title role, baritone Franco Pomponi, who is looking forward to his debut with our company in this stunning opera.

The irrepressible artist Batton Lash visited Don Giovanni rehearsals last week and shared with us his take on the opera which you can find below. In case you've forgotten, Batton Lash is the creator of the humor/horror series Supernatural Law (aka Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre ). Lash has also written for Archie Comics and Bongo Comics. His latest project is The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse, a brand-new series Lash created for David ( V for Vendetta ) Lloyd’s online comics anthology Aces Weekly.  Lash also paints monsters in his spare time. His Bride of Frankenstein paintings will be on display at the Digital Gym beginning February 22. More on Batton Lash can be found at www.exhibitapress.com   Artwork © copyright 2015 by Batton Lash. All rights reserved.   

Artist Rebecca Hicks is one of our newest artists to join us for our rehearsals. This week, Rebecca brought her watercolors in to paint Don Giovanni and this is what she came up with. She's also working on a series of paintings based solely on Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's leather pants. A bit about Rebecca:   Rebecca is the creator of the Little Vampires, small monsters that try to be big and fierce and fail spectacularly at it. She writes and draws their webcomic, has published four books about them, and is currently writing and illustrating the fifth Little Vampires book. You can visitMonsterdell, where the Little Vampires live at   and see Rebecca's other monster art at her website . It's awesome. All artwork © copyright 2015 by Rebecca Hicks. All rights reserved

Every opera we continued to be amazed by the work of Eric Shanower, who, each Wednesday before we open, drags his art supplies to the Civic Theatre and perches on a rickety theatre desk to sketch the action on stage. Below you can find the fruits of his labor. For those of you who missed his update for La boheme... Eric is still writing Age of Bronze, his comic book series that tells the complete story of the Trojan War, published by Image Comics. Currently being puclished by IDW also is a four-issue comic book series that he wrote, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland with artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also currently re-packaging his Oz graphic novels in oversize volumes as Adventures in Oz. Forthcoming in September 2015 from HarperCollins is his short comics story "Love Packs Heat" in the anthology Taking Aim: Power and Pain, Teens and Guns edited by Michael Cart. Also coming in fall 2015 from Dover Publications is a new printing of his illustrated children's