Summer classical music comes alive with opera and chamber music festivals

Opera Theatre of St. Louis

• Where: Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves
• How much: Free-$149
• More info: opera-stl.org

OTSL celebrates its 50th season with its accustomed four-opera lineup, plus Center Stage (June 24), its young artists concert showcase. Roughly 5% of capacity is reserved for Phyllis’ Seats, free rush tickets released in weekly tranches on the company’s website on Mondays at 10:30 a.m. All performances except Center Stage take place in English.

For its golden anniversary, OTSL mounts three comedies and one drama, the latter identified by general director Andrew Jorgensen as “the centerpiece of the season.” America’s sing-iest contemporary opera composer, Ricky Ian Gordon, has teamed up with playwright/librettist Lynn Nottage and her daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber, also a playwright, to pen “This House,” (May 31-June 29), OTSL’s 45th world premiere.

Gordon previously collaborated with Nottage in their 2022 PBS hit “Intimate Apparel,” an opera about a 20th century seamstress. “This House” concerns an African American family, owners of a Harlem brownstone since the 1920s. A daughter, Zoe, returns home, trying to convince her family to renovate the building and setting off a multigenerational drama. Opera Theatre has rostered a dazzling cast, with Briana Hunter as Zoe, and Aundi Marie Moore, Sankara Harouna, Brandie Inez Sutton, Krysty Swann, Victor Robertson, Adrienne Danrich and OTSL favorite Justin Austin rounding out the cast. James Robinson directs “This House,” likely to be one of the company’s most unmissable shows in recent seasons.

Laughs aplenty will bubble from the other three shows. Opening night sees the waltz king Johann Strauss II’s best-known operetta, “Die Fledermaus” (May 24- June 28), a farce presenting a champagne-soaked battle of the sexes. Deanna Breiwick, Sara Gartland and Joshua Blue star.

Regular St. Louis operagoers will recall Christine Lyons’ magnetic performance as Norina, the heroine of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” two summers ago at Union Avenue Opera; OTSL revives this opera (June 8-June 27) in celebration of its appearance in its very first season in 1976. Soprano Susanne Burgess appears as Donizetti’s It-Girl and Patrick Carfizzi as the title character, in this standard operatic comedy in which a pompous old man obstructs two young lovers’ union. And for the solstice, (June 14-June 28), Benjamin Britten’s 1960 operatic setting of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” appears in all its oneirophrenic glory with its huge cast, including beloved St. Louis native mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano.

Union Avenue Opera

• Where: Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Blvd.
• How much: $35-$55
• More info: unionavenueopera.org

At Union Avenue Church, UAO keeps the comedy flowing with Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady,” (July 5-July 12) the musical version of playwright George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” a breezy consideration of dialect and social mobility. A great pleasure is watching young artists ascend, and silver-timbred soprano Brooklyn Snow has reached playing Eliza Doolittle after a series of escalating triumphs at UAO including Cunégonde in “Candide,” a clarion Olympia in “The Tales of Hoffmann” (in a 104˚ circus tent), and Nanetta in “Falstaff.”

The season continues (July 25-August 2) with an interesting double bill pairing Leoncavallo’s commedia dell’arte barn-burner “Pagliacci,” not with its usual dance partner, Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana,” but instead with Tom Cipullo’s “Josephine,” an operatic biopic of St. Louis native and civil rights icon Josephine Baker. Soprano Manna K. Jones plays the “Black Venus,” Baker. Another UAO favorite, soprano Meroë Khalia Adeeb, appears as the at-risk Nedda in “Pagliacci.”

UAO’s mainstage season closes with the largest voice heard there since tenor Limmie Pulliam blew the church doors off in 2024’s concert “Aïda.” Steely dramatic soprano Kelly Slawson essays the title role of Richard Strauss’ messily erotic “Salome,” (August 15-August 23), frequently performed by women whose voices lack heft for the Judean princess’ flights atop the orchestra. Slawson brings no such limitations.

Gateway Men’s Chorus

• When: 8 p.m. June 21, 3 p.m. June 22
• Where: Link Auditorium, 4504 Washington Ave.
• How much: $20
• More info: cmgstl.org/pride

St. Louis’ oldest LGBT chorus celebrates Pride Month with “This Pride Concert is a Drag.” GMC promises a sing-along of disco and club pop classics.

Missouri Chamber Music Festival

• Where: Various
• How much: $5-$28; season pass $84
• More info: mochambermusic.org/season-15/

Missouri Chamber Music Festival presents a four-concert slate, beginning with a program called “Get Up!” of peppy works by Eric Cole, Eric Moe, Christopher Stark and Kevin Puts (7:30 p.m. June 9). Following are “Bygone” with music of Ravel, Debussy and Gyorgy Kurtag (7 p.m. June 12); “Naturally” with Florence Price, Kaija Saariaho and Joaquín Turina (7 p.m. June 15); and finally “Above” with Olivier Messiaen and Shulamit Ran (7 p.m. June 20).

More Classical Concerts

• Alliance Philharmonia, “First Anniversary Concert,” 3 p.m. June 22, First Congregational Church of St. Louis, 6501 Wydown Blvd., free, apo-stlouis.org
• Ambassadors of Harmony, “A Cappella Live: Broadway,” 2 p.m. June 14; “Acapellooza Summer Concert,” 7 p.m. June 27, Touhill PAC, 1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, $17-$33, aoh.org
• Gateway Festival Orchestra, “Juneteenth 2025: Harmony in Living Color,” 7:30 p.m. June 18, Ritenour High School Community Auditorium, 9100 St. Charles Rock Road, Breckenridge Hills, free, gatewayfestivalorchestra.org
• St. Louis Wind Symphony, “Pops and Patriotic Outdoor Concert,” 6:30 p.m. June 22, Paul Schroeder Park, 359 Old Meramec Station Rosd, Manchester, free, stlwindsym.org
• We Call It Ballet!, “Sleeping Beauty Dance and Light Show,” 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. June 7, Touhill PAC, 1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, $47-$67, touhill.org