Inland Northwest Opera is ready to return to the stage

After consulting with the Spokane Regional Health District over the last few months of lockdown, Inland Northwest Opera general director Dawn Wolski has programmed a reimagined lineup of live shows for the 2021-22 season.

“The INO board and I have done everything in our power to plan a season that is COVID proof … not only for our patrons but also for our artists,” Wolski said, explaining how their plan has attempted to allow for every possible contingency within reason.

Individual events may be produced on a smaller scale overall, but the 2021-22 season makes up the difference by featuring more events than ever before, Wolski said.

“We’re visiting schools, we’re going to be in community parks, on the lake, in town, and on top of that we’ll have digital options,” Wolski said. “It’ll be very difficult to avoid us.”

The full season lineup, including outdoor, semi-staged and mainstage productions, will be announced at 10 a.m. May 15.

INO’s annual “Opera Cruise” is expanding to offer two performance dates this summer, while the larger mainstage production is moving from late September to Halloween weekend. The show titles have not yet been announced, but Wolski shared that they will both have small casts to allow for social distancing among the performers.

“We have something really cool and different, edgy for our mainstage – I mean it’s a rock opera,” Wolski said, explaining that the production will integrate a troupe of dancers and an elaborate lighting design.

All performances, apart from the mainstage production at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, will be produced outside. Most of the programmed events, including the annual gala fundraiser, will include a livestreamed element.

“We’ll be looking at some hybrid options, as well, just so that people can attend our events at their own comfort level and still get their opera fix,” Wolski said.

Hamilton Studios’ help has been indispensable in this respect, Wolski said. They hope to produce a recording that approaches the kind of quality that the Metropolitan Opera offers in its Live in HD performances with close-ups and creative angles.

“I think that even people who have already attended the opera live are going to want to go back and see what we’ve produced,” Wolski said. “Digital adds a lot, and I think that’ll be really interesting for people – especially with the last year where we’ve had so much over the internet – to be able to closely compare the live experience with the recording.”

Building off the success of INO’s Opera on the Go, which allows fans to reserve and send “opera-grams” for two-hour intervals, the opera company will be debuting a larger scale program, Opera Truck. For what is essentially a fully mobile concert venue, the name doesn’t do it justice.

“The greatest thing about the Opera Truck is that it allows us to be flexible as our safety needs evolve,” she said. It’s difficult “not knowing what our capacity allowances are going to be or safety distances needed for singers. And this allows us to keep bringing joy to the community.”

The first of these live performances will be at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture on the first Friday in August. All Opera Truck performances will be free and open to the public.

“Our community has been incredibly supportive all throughout this pandemic,” Wolski said. “And so it’s our job to make sure to deliver, to bring joy and music to the community.”

For more information, visit inlandnwopera.com.