After Covid-19 forced the Central City Opera to cancel their annual summer opera festival in 2020, The Hudson Gardens & Event Center in Littleton has partnered with them to help host the festival for 2021. This year’s festival has been rehearsing since the first week of June. It includes a production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto.

All of these performances are occuring in Hudson Gardens, along with a production of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and the al fresco concert series being held at the Opera House Gardens.

In order to respect Covid regulations, all of the performances are being held outdoors this year, with actors wearing masks for indoor rehearsals and only taking them off for the final shows. Directors have also had to find creative methods of staging in order to appropriately follow the social distancing guidelines for the final show, and to work around unpredictable weather, such as rain and heat.

The shows feature performers from all over the world, including professional performers and a young artist program that includes bachelor, master, and conservatory students. The Opera owns historic buildings where the performers, directors, and creative team of each show live during the festival.

The people behind the productions are excited to be able to initiate productions earlier than most other companies, most of which aren’t fully starting up again until this October. Many of the participants are thrilled that they get to perform a show in front of a live audience again, as they’ve all had to perform only online or have possibly not been able to perform at all. After the Zoom burnout that even those outside of theater have experienced, they find it refreshing to stand in front of an audience and perform in a live space again.

While tickets for Dido and Aeneas are currently sold out, tickets for all other events are still available for purchase at www.centralcityopera.org. Carousel will be presented through August 1, Rigoletto through July 30, and the al fresco concerts are being held through July 31.

The opera house is located at 124 Eureka Street, Central City. Their box office can be reached at 303- 292-6700 and their administrative office at 303-292-6500.