Ah, fall — when an arts and entertainment fan’s fancy turns toward national tours and all sorts of other delights.

This year, San Antonians can look forward to Billy Joel and Sting at the Alamodome, Shakira, a mariachi opera, Twyla Tharp and big anniversaries for the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts and Ruby City, among many, many other offerings.

Madeline Elizondo, education coordinator for Opera San Antonio, asks the audience gathered in the rotunda at El Progreso Memorial Library about the difference between an opera and a musical. Opera San Antonio talent, including a couple sopranos and a tenor, offered a free child-friendly workshop on Monday, June 24.

One event is set to transcend borders, barriers, and languages. Where borders blur and music unites, the Opera on the Border is bridging two communities for an evening of classical tunes for a contemporary audience.

In collaboration with San Antonio Public Library, OPERA San Antonio presents Explore Opera For Kids! – a concert series bringing family-friendly opera to five SAPL locations throughout June. During each performance, characters from operatic masterpieces share their stories through the power of music.

The opening of a nature-themed art exhibit, the debut of a new music and art festival, classical music performances, a Pride Month hike, and pet friendly events are among major activities scheduled between June 14 and 18 in San Antonio.

coming to San Antonio this summer with Make Music Day San Antonio serving as the signature event. From noon to 10 p.m. on Friday, June 21, 2024 at Texas Public Radio Headquarters (321 W Commerce St.), the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture will be cohosting a free, live music activation to kick off and celebrate Make Music Day.

Opera San Antonio will kick off its 10th season this fall with the mariachi opera "Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon)." Much of the creative team from Houston Grand Opera's debut staging, pictured, will be working on the San Antonio production. 

In the midst of its production of the classic opera Pirates of Penzance, Opera San Antonio has announced the two major productions of its upcoming 2024-2025 season: Cruzar la Cara de la Luna on Oct. 3 and Oct. 5, and Madama Butterfly on April 17 and 19, 2025.

OPERA San Antonio (OSA), in collaboration with the Classical Music Institute (CMI), will fill the Tobin Center with jaunty jigs and moving ballads in its two-performance run of The Pirates of Penzance (dir. Sean Curran).
The Gilbert & Sullivan operetta has enamored audiences since 1879 with its comedic renditions of seafaring, swashbuckling and smitten first love.

The Orchestra San Antonio will perform for the first time under its new name at Opera San Antonios “Pirates of Penzance.”

OPERA San Antonio, the Classical Music Institute and the Main Plaza Conservancy is hosting a free night of pirate-themed live performances that will take place this weekend downtown.

The Three Kings ventured far from home to honor the birth of a new savior, signaled by a star. Opera San Antonio is venturing forth from its home at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, following its mission to make opera more accessible to all.

In a season stuffed with nutcrackers and Scrooges and sleigh rides, OPERA San Antonio presents a 45-minute one-act opera about some of the less-explored characters of the Christmas story: the three wise men.

OPERA San Antonio will open its season with Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera Hansel and Gretel in early October.

Opera is an inherently collaborative art form, so mounting the first collaboration of all five resident companies of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts seemed like a natural move, according to E. Loren Meeker, Opera San Antonio’s general and artistic director.

To celebrate the first official day of summer, the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture is providing a round-up of free ways to make the most of the season. 

The operative word in the new Opera San Antonio production of Romeo and Juliet is the conjunction “and” between the two famous names.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts resident company will transform the Carlos Alvarez Theater into a functioning cocktail bar for an immersive performance of María de Buenos Aires, a 1968 two-act opera by Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla and Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer. 

“Maria de Buenos Aires”: Opera San Antonio is planning an immersive staging of the opera, which tells the story of a sex worker obsessed with tango. The piece has music by Astor Piazzolla and a libretto by Horacio Ferrer. Feb. 10-11, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

The synopsis of 19th century composer Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci reads almost as a rendering of the current dispute between San Antonio arts companies: “When a traveling acting troupe arrives to perform in a bustling town, the secrets and jealousies among them threaten to explode onstage.”

The debut production of Opera San Antonio’s 2022-23 season, Pagliacci, is a verismo-style Italian opera that is heavy on drama, which cast members say makes it easy for the audience to understand even if they don’t read every word of the English supertitles that will scroll above the performance.

Discussion of a proposed $300,000 in funding for the Classical Music Institute struck notes of discord at Bexar County Commissioners Court Tuesday. With the funding, the Classical Music Institute (CMI) would replace the former San Antonio Symphony as orchestra for Opera San Antonio and Ballet San Antonio performances at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

The fine arts are back in full swing. While attendance and fundraising may still be catching up to pre-COVID levels, San Antonio is heading into the 2022-23 arts season with a full slate of live theater, music, dance and opera performances to enjoy.

The dramatic and passion-filled story of Rigoletto comes to life by way of the talented Opera San Antonio performers. Audiences can follow the journey of devoted and protective father, Rigoletto, in his mission to protect his daughter’s virtue in direct opposition to the suave and manipulative Duke of Mantua.

Verdi's Rigoletto has often been called the greatest of all operas, with its famous arias and powerful drama about a flawed father's love. It first premiered in Venice in 1851, and is now being staged at the Tobin Center for two performances only, May 5 and 7, 2022.

From start to finish, Opera San Antonio’s production of Verdi’s operatic masterpiece, Rigolleto, was a work of art in every way. Every part of it – scenery, chorus, orchestra, soloists, direction and lighting – contributed to telling the story and letting Verdi’s music do what it’s been doing for the past 170 years – engage, delight and move the audience.

Opera San Antonio’s production of “Rigoletto” will have all the bells and whistles that operaphiles expect, something that hasn’t been possible for more than two years because of the pandemic.

Opera San Antonio returns to the Tobin Center stage with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera about a father’s quest to protect his daughter. A pre-show lecture is open to all ticket holders at 6:30 p.m. The show is a co-production of Boston Lyric Opera, the Atlanta Opera and Opera Omaha. The production is being performed in Italian with English supertitles. Tickets are available here. Thursday & Saturday, 7:30 p.m. 100 Auditorium Circle

The fine arts are back in full swing. While attendance and fundraising may still be catching up to pre-COVID levels, San Antonio is heading into the 2022-23 arts season with a full slate of live theater, music, dance and opera performances to enjoy.

Opera San Antonio returns to the Tobin Center stage with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera about a father’s quest to protect his daughter. A pre-show lecture is open to all ticket holders at 6:30 p.m. The show is a co-production of Boston Lyric Opera, the Atlanta Opera and Opera Omaha. The production is being performed in Italian with English supertitles. Tickets are available here. Thursday & Saturday, 7:30 p.m. 100 Auditorium Circle