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Coming Up Next this Season
Dear LOT Friends,
As many of you know on January 1st of this year LOT’s Founder, Executive, and Artistic Director, Dr. Juliana Bishop Hoch passed on the baton to new Executive and Artistic Director, Kelsie Furst. While Juliana is enjoying retirement from LOT and running her voice studio, our new Loveland Opera Team is hard at work making preparations for this upcoming season. New to our staff is Associate Director Emily Morris, who has been seen as a leading lady in past LOT productions and was one of our lovely Gala soloists in our “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” Gala at TPC this past December.
While some things have changed, we’re preserving some LOT traditions and that brings us to our Summer Concert Series. This summer we will be bringing “The Alps Meet The Rockies: Summer Festspiel” to Loveland and Greeley in three performances. We will be featuring traditional german and austrian art song, opera and operetta scenes, and will also give audiences a sneak *peak* into the music of our mainstage production this season, The Sound of Music featuring music by Richard Rodgers and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. We will be returning to The Foundry in downtown Loveland on July 11th, 2025. On July 20th, Loveland Opera Theatre has teamed up with Grimm Brothers Brewery on our storytelling mission and will be performing our set indoors in their lovely Forge Event space. Grimm Brothers will be providing drink specials on German and Austrian Style beers and their kitchen will be serving german and austrian dishes. We will be helping them kick off their 15th anniversary week so please join us in celebrating LOT and their collaboration in this festival experience! We will be bringing our “Alps Meet the Rockies” programming to Greeley in late July for the Greeley Arts Picnic where we forward to joining other performing and visual artists. These concerts will be FREE to the public again thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor.
Loveland Opera Theatre will be returning to our performing home for two weekends in October for the much anticipated The Sound of Music directed by Peter Muller and Conducted by A.J. Wulf. The story behind our decision to produce this musical this season was a sentimental one. When Kelsie and Juliana sat down to brainstorm shows we reflected on the first shows that made us want to sing and both of us happened to say The Sound of Music. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the film and yet it’s a timeless classic that erases generational gaps and gives us the opportunity to tell a beautiful story with an amazingly talented team of artists who hold this particular music close to their hearts as well. Please join us at the Rialto Theater in Loveland October 10th,11th,12th,16th,17th, and 18th as we escape to the Austrian alps.
To end our 2025 season, we have our “A Night In Vienna: Opera Ball” which will be held at the TPC Clubhouse in Berthoud on 12/27/2025. “A Night in Vienna” is our chance to dress to the nines, listen to some celebratory opera selections featuring soloists and chorus, and for artist and audience members alike to feel like they’ve been transported back in time and place for an evening. Please come for a wonderful program full of opera favorites, dinner, and dancing. Tickets include a 3 course meal and complimentary N/A Beverages. There will be a cash bar for this event.
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Early in 2026 we will be bringing our Dahlen Education Outreach Program back to Thompson Schools with “Little Red’s Most Unusual Day” which is a twist on the classic “Little Red Riding Hood” with music by Offenbach and Rossini and Libretto by John Davies. We will be touring again to select schools for two weeks in February 2026 and February 2027. Grimm Brothers Brewery will be hosting us again in their event space on 02/14 for a free public performance of this opera open to adults and children food and drink specials that fit the theme.
Thank you to all of our patrons who have believed in LOT and our mission to bring opera to the hearts and minds of all! We ask for your continued support as we aspire to create art and bring musical storytelling to our Northern Colorado community! As many of you know, we’re seeing a significant increase in costs to perform at the Rialto due to city budget cuts. We’re hopeful that with our strategic mainstage musical choice this season, we will sell more tickets than ever before but this production takes a significant amount of time, money, and resources to produce. Please consider adopting an artist or providing the funds to cover costumes, set pieces, audio equipment, and the production crew to help us bring this phenomenal show to the stage. We’re also looking for sponsors for our Ball so please contact Kelsie if you or your company is interested in sponsoring a table. Donations this season will determine whether or not we can continue to perform at the Rialto in the future.
We Look forward to seeing new and familiar faces this season!
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Kelsie Furst
Executive and Artistic Director
Loveland Opera Theatre
Once the show began, there was non-stop enjoyment as the pirates, the damsels, the police, and everyone else involved appears to have the time of their lives, for the benefit of a greatly-appreciative audience. The “pure” pirates perform to perfection – and so does the rest of the cast!
Tom Jones on Pirates of Penzance