Opera Theatre of St. Louis Is Ready for Its Biggest Season Since 2018

For Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the past few years were tough. The pandemic upended the viewing habits of many of its biggest fans, who stopped attending live theater as COVID-19 ravaged the nation — and even when life returned to normal for most Americans, they didn't come back.

That's what makes Anh Le, the opera company's director of marketing and PR, downright stoked as she looks at the ticket sales for the festival season that kicks off later this month.

"We are trending way ahead of the last two years," she says. "Ticket sales are actually pacing very close to 2018. It's the closest to pre-COVID numbers we've been since the pandemic."

What accounts for the bump? Digging into the data, Le explains that the devoted opera-goers who dropped out during the pandemic and weren't ready for outdoor opera in 2021 or masks/vaccine cards in 2022 still haven't returned. Where Opera Theatre of St. Louis has managed to succeed, however, is by bringing in new fans — in many cases, younger fans — and getting them hooked.

"We are seeing extremely high interest from new audiences, people who have not been to the opera before, at percentages that are either equivalent to or higher than pre-COVID," she says. "More of our audience every year is new to us."

That fact is not without its challenges; it often takes more outreach to bring in new fans, and the cratering of the base adds to the pressure of finding them. But it's also resulted in audiences where a greater percentage of attendees are younger. You no longer have to attend only on Young Friends Night to notice young couples enjoying a show, or groups of girlfriends sharing a picnic before heading into a performance. Says Le, "Between 2018 and our first season back in the theater, our rate of young audiences jumped from like 25 percent to like 35 percent, but the actual body count was very, very similar. It's just that now they're a much larger percentage of the audience because of the people who aren't coming back."

Part of what seems to be bumping the numbers in 2024 is the show selection. This year includes two major fan favorites — The Barber of Seville and La Boheme, the former one of the most beloved comedies of all time, with an instantly recognizable score, the latter the Puccini classic that directly inspired Rent. What's not to love?

But Le wants you to know there's more on the bill. The season is rounded out by two operas that may be less well-known, but that she swears will knock your socks off. The first is Julius Caesar, which couldn't be more different from Shakespeare's assassination-focused history play. This one has a score by Handel and puts the focus squarely on Cleopatra in what Le describes as "an incredibly sexy, steamy story."

"It's really her story of how she rises to power and how she uses all of the tools and all of the feminine wiles at her disposal to ensure that that happens," Le notes. "So it is both political drama and very sexy love story."

The second is Galileo Galilei, with music by Philip Glass, which premiered in 2002 and has only been performed by two smaller opera companies since. "It is a really rare opportunity for those that small but very loud group of people who really really love Philip Glass," Le notes.


But you won't have to be a Glass-head (is that a thing?) to appreciate the charms of this show. It's not just that it's a brisk 90 minutes, with no intermission (although opera's trailing spouses will certainly approve). It's also the fashion. Newcomers to shows at Opera Theatre of St. Louis often find their mouths agape at the beauty of its sets and costumes, and Le says Galileo Galilei is a more than worthy heir to that tradition.

"I am not lying when I tell you I've seen I've been here for almost 10 years, and I've seen a lot of costume renderings come through our doors, but these ones made my jaw hit the floor," Le says. "They are stunning. They are incredibly lavish and elaborate, true Renaissance period costumes designed by an Italian designer named Marco Piemontese.

"Even if you don't know anything about contemporary music, or Galileo or science, come see these costumes, because they are going to be kickass. They're going to be so insane."

And if you are a newcomer to Opera Theatre of St. Louis, it's also worth mentioning that the evening on offer is one of the most lovely experiences you can have in a St. Louis summer. Fans know to get there early, and order a picnic basket from Ces & Judy's Catering ahead of time, to partake in a well-executed meal in the beautiful garden near the Loretto-Hilton Theatre on the campus of Webster University. (BYOB drinks are welcome; there's also a bar.) Then stay after the show to close out the night with drinks under the stars. It's elegant without being stuffy — and one of the many reasons that once younger people try Opera Theatre of St. Louis, they often come back every year.

Incidentally, they're increasingly around other St. Louis arts fans when they do. Before the pandemic, Opera Theatre of St. Louis regularly saw 20 percent of its audience consist of opera superfans, who fly to Santa Fe or Des Moines along with St. Louis to see the best new productions each year. The pandemic reduced their numbers, too, and now out-of-towners only make up about 10 percent of the company's audiences, Le says.

Again, it makes the job of marketing these shows harder — superfans had been a predictable category — but in some ways, it's woven Opera Theatre of St. Louis' fates even more tightly to its namesake city. "We're really at the early starting point of trying to think about our season's programming as, 'How does this serve St. Louis? Why would a St. Louis resident be interested in seeing this work? And are we making it accessible for people who live here?'" Le says. "So we still want to bring all the national attention, we still want the national critics to come, we still want the out-of-town guests to come. But really, we haven't done our job if we're not serving our community."

Opera Theatre of St. Louis kicks off its 2024 festival season with The Barber of Seville on May 25. Tickets, picnic orders and more at opera-stl.org.

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