A trio of chamber operas performed on the lawn of the Athenaeum Hotel, including two world premieres from The Summer Place, a new opera inspired by oral histories and true accounts of life at Chautauqua Institution across the decades. Conceived to be performed outdoors on the grounds of Chautauqua, The Summer Place is a fitting celebration of Chautauqua in its sesquicentennial year. This hour-long evening of opera is rounded out with the -charming and poignant story of Pepito.

A.E. Reverie (world premiere)
Music by Kamala Sankaram
Libretto by Jerre Dye

A.E. Reverie unfolds the night after Amelia Earhart gracefully landed her plane at Chautauqua in 1929. After witnessing Amelia’s empowering Amphitheater lecture, a young woman stares at the night sky, dreaming of taking her own life to new heights.

Love, Loss, and the Century Upon Us (world premiere)
Music by Rene Orth
Libretto by Jerre Dye

In Love, Loss and the Century Upon Us, we find young lovers from different worlds strolling beside Chautauqua Lake in 1899. The Athenaeum hotel, ablaze with the brilliance of electricity for the very first time, is the backdrop for their courtship and reflections of the impact of this historic transformation. 

Pepito
Music by Nicolás Lell Benavides
Libretto by Marella Martin Koch

In Pepito, written in 2019, a lonely shelter dog is yearning for his old family until a young couple, Camila and David, visit, seeking the ideal canine companion. When Camila immediately forges a bond with the dog, Pepito, the shelter manager, questions whether Camila and David are truly prepared to take on a new pet. 

A.E Reverie and Love, Loss and the Century Upon Us were co-commissioned by Chautauqua Opera Company and Opera Memphis, with the generous support of the Chautauqua Opera Guild, Jeanie Mercer and Breen Bland. The libretto of The Summer Place was commissioned in full by the Chautauqua Opera Guild.