If the idea of opera intimidates you or makes you think of ornate performances in a foreign language with glass-shattering sopranos in gilded theatres, think again: Opera Steamboat has something in store that might make an opera convert out of you.
This August, the World Premiere of “Welcome to the Madness” will present a whole new kind of opera, an immersive experience about the founding of Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp in Steamboat, complete with a roaming vocal theatre adventure and live horses. “We wanted to find something new that would be appealing to audiences of all ages. This crazy piece about the founding of Perry Mansfield, by a native Colorado composer, is going to be the perfect thing for Opera Steamboat to reconnect with the community” says Julie Maykowski, General Director and CEO.
The whole audience, cast, and ensemble will move around the Perry-Mansfield campus to three different venues during the show. “I’ve produced some gigantic operas in my day, but this is unlike anything I’ve seen before,” says Maykowski, whose career in opera began when she was 18 and went on to encompass everything from singing and stage direction to administration. She worked for a myriad of companies around the country on both the artistic and fundraising side. Maykowski, who recently came on board full-time in late 2023, hopes this show will engage a broader audience. “Until now, we’ve been making art for a very small group of local people rather than trying to make art that our whole community can appreciate. Trying something new is really exciting.
Perry-Mansfield has a special place in Steamboat’s heart, and is also central to its history, not only as a cultural arts retreat in the mountains but also in its long running equestrian program. Founded in 1913 by Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield, the vision was to create a theatre and dance camp in the mountains. Dubbed by locals as “the mad ladies of Steamboat” these women landed in a pioneer town full of ranchers and miners with a mission to teach “natural dance forms” and “artistic expression close to creatures and mountains and out of doors.” How progressive they must have seemed, dancing in fields of wildflowers at the Perry-Mansfield campus in Strawberry Park, where the non-profit organization still exists today, in long flowing skirts. They were so progressive, in fact, that the prestigious summer program still operates under the same principles today.
That makes for an equally progressive opera, and for a World Premiere, which requires a lot of work, Maykowski says, building a production from the ground up as opposed to reproducing something that’s been done hundreds of times. “It’s the right piece at the right time for Opera Steamboat,” she says.
In advance of the production, Opera Steamboat hosted a series of events with other local nonprofits such as a historical perspective with the Tread of the Pioneer Museum that featured monologues juxtaposed to numbers from the opera that garnered a large turnout and enthusiastic response. A second event at Carpenter Ranch focused on the connection between arts and nature and the role horses play, which is apropos of Perry-Mansfield’s history and mission. “The whole idea behind these events this to show the community that this is a genre bending production that aims to bring opera into this millennium,” Maykowski says. “This isn’t your grandmother’s opera.”//operasteamboat.org
