Hello! We’re thinking about you! We sincerely hope that you are safe and healthy and that you have everything you need. We hope you’ll enjoy this video as much as we enjoyed making it. And if you were thinking about buying a ticket to Tosca this June, we hope you’ll consider making a donation in the amount of your ticket (or any number of tickets!), to help keep LOON singing into the future. Thanks for watching – and thanks for reading! And thank you for your continued support.

TICKET-SIZED DONATION From now until June 14 , which would have been closing night of Tosca . Would you normally be buying tickets for the June opera right about now? Are you a $12 student-ticket buyer? Do you buy a whole row in the $57 A section for your friends? Whatever you might normally spend on tickets, we hope you’ll consider making a donation to Lyric Opera of the North in that amount. MATCHING DONORS: We are thrilled to announce that the first $4,000 (and counting!) of these ticket-sized donations will be matched by a group of donors. So your gift to LOON will be doubled!

Donate Online Here

Your contribution will help start work on the following projects: • Will there be school in the fall? We don’t know. But as soon as elementary school students can gather in their school gym, we will be ready with our next Little LOON touring production. There are design and production elements that can happen in isolation – right now! • In collaboration with a consortium of other opera companies, Lyric Opera of the North is creating a Quarantine Opera. That’s all we can say right now, but donations received during this time period will help create something very exciting that we will be able to share online while we’re all staying apart -- and then we’ll offer it in a theater when it’s safe to gather again. • Beginning work on the upcoming season of opera: online if necessary, in-person if possible!

This is usually a very busy time of year for everyone at Lyric Opera of the North. The bustle of preparation for the big June opera is one that we relish: long days in the costume shop and the scenic shop. A busy box office. The same melodies stuck in our heads after hours in the rehearsal room. We miss it. We miss you. This summer we would have been humming strains from Puccini’s Tosca. But since rehearsals and performances aren’t safe right now, we will look forward to spending time with that masterpiece next season. There’s no way we can know when we’ll all be together again. So while we are physically apart, LOON’s work will focus on staying connected with you and with the artists whose talents bring so much beauty into our lives. When it’s safe for all of us to be together again, we will be ready to put gorgeous, elevating operas on the stage.

Photos by Michelle Sangster

Until then, we’ll be reaching out through emails, letters, phone calls, and with singing! We will have opera to share with you online very soon. The bustle may be different, but there’s a lot of work happening right now. Opera has survived for hundreds of years, and opera will survive this pandemic. Thank you for staying in touch, and thank you for your support. Thanks to you, LOON will be singing -- NOW and into the FUTURE!

loonopera.org

THANK YOU to this Season’s Corporate Sponsors! Beaumier Family Endowment Fund and Beaumier Trogdon Orman Hurd & Viegas Builders Commonwealth Leaderly, Inc. North Shore Bank of Commerce Vikre Distillery

Lyric Opera of the North | 218-464-0922 | loonopera.org ‌ ‌

Operating support is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.