(Credit: Duane Tinkey / Des Moines Metro Opera)

The Atlanta Opera has announced that its Veterans Program will provide free tickets to over 2,800 veterans and active military. The company is also set to host an event on the eve of Veterans day prior to a performance of “La Cenerentola.”

The event, which will also include a reception to celebrate the program and those that benefit from it, is the latest in a series that began back in 2015 with a performance of “Soldier Songs.” During that event, the company gave out 750 tickets to veterans and active military personnel during the run of the opera.

The following year, 700 tickets were distributed during “Silent Night” while in 2017, the program was made permanent and tickets were offered for all mainstage productions. Per a press release, over 7,000 tickets have been donated through the veterans program. The program recently received the 2019 Luminary Award for Community Engagement.

“What’s incredible about the opera is that it tells stories, universal stories about human beings, and the experience of being in a war is kind of a universal story,” stated the Atlanta Opera’s Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun in a press release. “And I think what is in common for every experience of a soldier in the army, regardless of where they are and what time period they are in, is the fear of not seeing the ones they love again. The fear of not seeing their parents or their wives or their children…it’s what makes us human beings, and it’s what connects the audience to the stories that we tell.”

This season will include a production of Tom Cipullo’s “Glory Denied,” starring Michael Mayes.