For more information on educational programs, please email spurser@operaorlando.org

Request access to The Secret River link and materials HERE.

Opera Orlando presents the world premiere of The Secret River - an opera for all audiences - based on the book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Follow the journey of young Calpurnia through the backwoods of Central Florida and find the goodness within us all.

CAST

CREATIVE TEAM

SYNOPSIS

A young girl named Calpurnia lives near Cross Creek, Florida, during the Great Depression. When she learns that her community has fallen on hard times and faces starvation and that her father’s livelihood as a fisherman is threatened, she seeks the advice of Mother Albirtha, a wise woman who lives deep in the forest. Albirtha tells Calpurnia about a secret river teeming with fish and that she’ll find it only when she learns to trust her imagination. Calpurnia heeds Mother Albirtha’s advice, saves the community and her father’s business—but in the end, also learns a profound lesson about humility and the true meaning of altruism.

“A secret river,
Flows through us all,
Young and old,
Big and small.”

HAVE A LISTEN

LEARN MORE

To book our studio artists for a special preview performance of this new opera for all audiences, contact Sarah Purser, studio artist program director, at spurser@operaorlando.org.

The commissioning of Stella C.Y. Sung for The Secret River (a new opera for all audiences based on the book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings) received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Additional funding provided by the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation, The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, the Universal Orlando Foundation, Dr. Phillips Charities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.