Florida Grand Opera ’17-18 Season Preview

Florida Grand Opera is celebrating its 77th year of continuously producing grand opera during the 2017-18 Season. Join us for this special preview!

Florida Grand Opera is proud to partner with Books & Books, to offer a lively and informative series of lectures pegged to FGO’s 2017-18 season. The series features Justin Moss, FGO’s Director of Broward Operations and Outreach, widely known to South Florida audiences for his popular pre-performance lectures at FGO. Moss will be interviewed by Brian Kellow, New York Times best-selling author and Public Relations Manager of FGO.

The inaugural event in the series takes place on Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 2pm, at Books & Books in Coral Gables, 265 Aragon Avenue, in the form of a detailed preview of FGO’s coming season, which opens November 11, 2017 with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.

“2017-18 is shaping up to be the most varied and interesting season we have produced since I came to FGO five years ago,” said Susan T. Danis, the company’s General Director and CEO. “We thought it would be a wonderful idea for Justin give our audiences some tips on how to prepare for the season—which books to read, which videos to watch, which recordings to seek out. Justin is one of the jewels in FGO’s crown. He is one of the most erudite opera experts I know, and he’s also a lot more fun than the average lecturer.”

The series continues with four Farm-to-Table mini-lectures & dinner at The Café at Books & Books at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, each featuring a five-course menu, prepared by Books & Books’ renowned Chef Allen Susser, that is keyed to one of the season’s operas. The Opera-inspired series will take place each Monday night (before the premiere of the Opera’s run at the Arsht Center that weekend) at 6pm beginning with a short lecture inside the store, and followed with dinner at 6:30pm, at the café’s outdoor communal table located on 13^th street. Priced at $25 per person, excluding tax and gratuity, or $39 including wine, each week promises fresh offerings reflecting local flavors.

The mainstage operas of the season include:

Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, November 11-December 2, 2017

Richard Strauss’s Salome, January 27-February 10, 2018

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, March 17-31, 2018

Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, April 28 – May 5, 2018

About Justin Moss:

Justin Moss is a native of San Francisco, Justin Moss has held management posts with Virginia Opera, Baltimore Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. He has also served as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and as a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1993, he joined Florida Grand Opera, where he currently serves as the company’s Director of Broward Operations and Outreach. He is also widely known throughout South Florida as a witty and well-informed opera lecturer; his lectures prior to each performance at Florida Grand Opera are enormously popular events.

About Brian Kellow:

Brian Kellow is the Public Relations Manager of Florida Grand Opera. He is the author of five books, including Can I Go Now?: The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood’s First Superagent, a New York Times Best Seller of 2015, and Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a New York Times Notable Book of 2011. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Travel & Leisure, Opera, BBC Music Magazine, and other publications.