(Credit: Dario Acosta)

Opera San José has announced that it will present a fully staged production of Jake Heggie’s chamber opera, “Three Decembers.”

The opera will star Susan Graham in the lead role, Maya Kherani and Efraín Solís in a digital production offered via on-demand streaming beginning Dec. 3, 2020.

The work is based on the unpublished play “Some Christmas Letters” and will showcase pianist/Head of Music Staff Veronika Agranov-Dafoe and pianist Sunny Yoon.  The dual-piano arrangement was created and conducted by Opera San José Resident Artist conductor Christopher James Ray.  The production was captured in Opera San José’s new Fred Heiman Digital Media Studio and directed by Tara Branham.

In a press release, the company noted that Opera San José General Director Khori Dastoor “envisioned this pioneering production as an opportunity to utilize the know-how of the company’s Silicon Valley environs to make music performances available during this crisis. The company assembled an outstanding team to create a safe performance space, operated under the strictest safety protocols, to achieve a world-class digital capture. The participating artists quarantined and created a social pod, allowing them to safely interact during the process.”

Additionally, the company noted that all cast and crew underwent frequent COVID testing and temperature checks ad the filming space was cleaned/disinfected continually and divided by clear plexiglass barriers, isolating musicians/conductors from singers, and all crew wore personal protective equipment.