Pick.Click.Give. 2020

Add or amend your Pick.Click.Give donation by June 17, 2020

Difficult times only strengthen our resolve and commitment to “Enrich. Inspire. Educate. Collaborate. Build Community..one note at a time!”

Our stage may be ‘dark’ but our community spirit is brighter than ever…Help us go from this darkness to curtain back up. 

We appreciate your Pick.Click.Give. donation in ANY amount especially during this time of dire need during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Perhaps you’re finding comfort and inspiration in the arts, watching ‘live’ streaming of great past performances. Technology is keeping us connected to each other and to the arts; we’re so grateful for that…but as amazing as virtual reality is, it can’t beat ‘real’ reality.  LIVE opera nourishes our souls, takes us away from the everyday, fills us with joy (even when it makes us cry…maybe even especially when it makes us cry!), reminds us how connected we all are by telling universal timeless stories, touches us in ways that only the human voice, soaring orchestras in the pit, stunning costumes, evocative lighting design and larger than life sets can. Opera is unique and amazing for so many reasons, including that it brings us all together in a theater to share a live common experience that unites and uplifts us. We all know we can’t do that just now…but we look forward to being able to do so in the future!

Please…help ensure that there IS a future for Anchorage Opera after the pandemic.

Thank you & Bravo!  

The Impact of Your Gift: helps us serve our community

Our Community is our Stage!

Your donation enables us to connect directly with our community in new and more meaningful ways helping us produce and perform main stage operas, new socially relevant works, educational programs and community collaborations for which we will engage the talents of some 400 singers, musicians & theatrical artists approximately 87% of which live in the greater Anchorage area.

Each season new works are presented to serve our community
  • Glory Denied (Feb ’17) served our military population an we collaborated with Anchorage VA‘s, Alaska Veterans Museum & military bases. With #AKVetStories, memories of AK vets were put onto cards and placed on each theater seat. Talk Backs with the artists let audiences discuss the show & their experience of it. 
  • As One (Feb ’18) told the journey of a trans protagonist. Partnering with Identity, we engaged new audiences & addressed discrimination based on gender identity/sexual orientation. Prelude to the Opera featured local trans men & women relating their own stories, #TRANSformativeStories seat cards were placed. An exhibition of art by local trans artists was in Voth Hall, where Identity, Fair Anchorage & Welcoming Anchorage manned informational tables.
  • An American Dream (Feb ’19) dealt with WWII Japanese American internment & AO used the opera to include the topic of Alaska Natives’ internment, inspiring discussion of discrimination & the current treatment of refugees/immigrants. Prelude to the Opera speakers were in the camps themselves, #AKIncarcerationStories seat cards were created. JACL, Alaska Jewish Museum, ACLU, Bridge Builders, Congregation Beth Sholom, National Park Service, Japan Alaska Association & Identity participated. 
  • Frida (Feb ’20) Voth Hall became the site for our interactive Frida Exhibition during all performances of the show. Community members and organizations whose missions align with Frida Kahlo’s legendary life were invited to be a part of it to shine a spotlight on them and their causes.  Indra ArriagaIdentity, Inc.Rotary Club of Anchorage EastAlaska Miss AmazingThe Piñata Shop,Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska and Tim Pearson for participating. You all made our production a richer experience for everyone. Bravi tutti!

 

The Impact of Your Gift: helps our schoolchildren

  • Our education program, AO2Go, partners with the faculty of UAA and UAF to present operatic performances that tour to area schools and far afield to remote Alaska Native villages.
  • In a time when music and theater arts education in our schools is suffering drastic funding cut-backs, Anchorage Opera is dedicated to bridging that gap. Our entire community benefits when our children have the arts in their lives.
  • Each season more than 1700 students attend final dress rehearsals of operas at the PAC free of charge.  

In the weeks before the Alaska premiere of Frida, AO took the cast and artistic team onsite to organizations engaged through the project for a program of excerpts and discussions about the production, including Anchorage School District classrooms. “One in five students comes from a household where English is not a first language and 23% of those report Spanish as their first language.” Smith said. “Opportunities to experience the arts, especially opera, are limited for ASD students. We’re proud to have reached many under-served segments of our community while simultaneously demonstrating the diversity of artists and our art form in current times, thereby making it relatable to them.” 

“Opera performers inspire a younger generation with an age-old art form” by Kristen Durand, KTUU Channel 2 News

The Impact of Your Gift: enables community partnerships

Making magic onstage and OFF in our community on collaborative events with:

  • Anchorage Downtown Partnership
  • Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
  • Anchorage Rotary Clubs
  • Alaska Zoo
  • Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska
  • S.T.A.R. (Standing Together Against Rape)
  • Local Restaurants
  • …and more!

The cast of La Boheme  took South Restaurant + Coffeehouse by storm with a Flash MOB-pera 

First Friday, Feb 7, 2020 – Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center

Pick.Click.Give. 2020

Thank you for helping Anchorage Opera during this crisis by adding or changing your Pick.Click.Give donation by June 17, 2020

Help us Enrich. Inspire. Educate. Collaborate. Build Community…one note at a time! 

We appreciate your gift in ANY amount especially during this time of dire need during the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ve felt the power of opera to touch our souls, how a classic favorite can reconnect you to things that matter to you or a how a new work can take you by storm and change your life. Opera brings joy and wonder at a time when we all need it most…