
Boston Lyric Opera Announces ‘Rising Waters/Rising Voices’
By Afton Markay“Rising Waters/Rising Voices” is Boston Lyric Opera’s new initiative to address climate change.
Boston Lyric Opera plans to use its stages and its community position to call attention to and motivate action to mitigate the climate crisis. “Rising Waters/Rising Voices” kicks off Oct. 19 and 20 during Fort Point Open Studios, where the company will welcome visitors to its new Opera & Community Studios space at Midway Artist Studios. These events will feature sneak peek performances of upcoming programming. Also, Artistic Director Nina Yoshida Nelsen will moderate a panel discussion about climate change awareness with leading climate activists and professionals.
For the spring 2025 season, two mainstage productions will focus on this topic. First up is the world premiere of “The Seasons” co-conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Sarah Ruhl. A free, community-centered performance of Benjamin Britten’s parable opera “Noah’s Flood” will close out the season.
“Rising Waters/Rising Voices” is inspired by the company’s recent expansion into the city’s Fort Point neighborhood, an area considered particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels. The initiative is modeled on the “The Butterfly Process,” which during the 2022-23 season pulled together artists, opera historians, academicians, and prominent Asian and Asian-American leaders to look at the opera “Madama Butterfly.” The participants examined the opera through an anti-racist lens and developed an industry-leading plan for staging intentional and inclusive future productions.
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