Austin, TX
Austin Opera Envisions Dazzling Future Amid Industry Turbulence – Reporting Texas
By OISAKHOSE AGHOMO
Photography By OISAKHOSE AGHOMO
Reporting Texas
Jasmine Habersam who plays Musetta rehearses a scene in Act 2 of the Austin Opera’s upcoming production of ‘La Boheme’. She is surrounded by other members of the cast. Oisakhose Aghomo/Reporting Texas
Near a nondescript building in North Austin, if you listen hard, you can hear Mimi and Rodolfo falling in love.
As the Austin Opera prepares for its upcoming opening of “La Boheme,” it’s on the upswing into a new era – despite the recent turbulence surrounding the classical arts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And while the actor Timothee Chalamet recently said “no one cares about” opera and ballet, Austin Opera is building its future.
“The company had been leasing rehearsal and administrative space for many years when I got here. …We’ve been kind of running our costume shop out of the corner of a warehouse.” said Annie Burridge, general director of the Austin Opera.
For the last year, the company has been promoting its big move to the Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Center in the fall; it will have both a rehearsal space and a costume shop. The company is betting that both the move and its ambitious slate of classic and experimental operas will fortify its business as threats to funding spiral across the industry.
Brittany Olivia Logan plays Mimi in the Austin Opera’s new production. Oisakhose Aghomo/Reporting Texas
“La Boheme” was originally composed by Giacomo Puccini as a tale of friendship and love, set in 19th century France, centered around lovers Rodolfo and Mimi. It’s sung in Italian, the de facto language of opera.
Austin Opera’s “La Boheme” is a production of around 160 people including stage crew and a youth choir. Several times a week for three-hour blocks, the cast and crew meet up in a waiting-room sized space filled with carts of props, costumes and musical instruments.
As director of the show, Eboni Adams works to make everyone feel at home with the space and each other.
“What I found in rehearsal spaces is that no matter if you’ve done ‘La Boheme’ one time or 20 times, I always look at the space that we enter into as this is the first last time we will do ‘La Boheme’ in this way because we have people in the room that we have never done this with,” Adams said.
Though “La Boheme” tends to attract a large audience, opera companies typically run a deficit, Burridge said.
“Even with ticket prices that can go up to as high as $250 when we’re doing something that’s really popular or in demand, that’s still only going to cover maybe 30% of the expense of putting on an opera,” she said. “It’s always been reliant on patrons willing to cover 70% of that gap.”
Burridge said that the company had been looking for additional sources of revenue to stay alive because “city, state, national support is just meaningless here in the U.S.”
Timothy Myers, the musical director, ends a scene with Jasmine Habersham as Musetta and the rest of cast and choir. Oisakhose Aghomo/Reporting Texas
In the last few months, a highly publicized breakup between the Washington National Opera and the newly renamed Trump Kennedy Center, under new management by the Trump administration, has unfolded. NPR reported that the new policies, which required the Washington National Opera to pay for the costs of production up front, caused the rupture.
In addition, the Trump administration has systemically cut grants from the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for Humanities in the last year. The Madison Opera in Wisconsin lost a $25,000 grant in 2025, according to The Cap Times.
Burridge said that even though government funding could account for about 5% of an American city opera’s budget, the loss of the funding is “a signal that you don’t need to care about these things, and that’s tough to combat right now.”
Adams said that framing the arts as trivial doesn’t make sense.
“When has sports ever been underfunded? Hm,” she said. “And so the question is, what is it about art that some people and organizations are deciding generally that those things should not be funded? What is the power of art and why are people not finding it of importance?”
This is why, as an Austin native, Adams said it was disheartening that Texas’ unofficial cultural ambassador, Matthew McConaughey, was a silent bystander while Chalamet made his comments on the profitability of opera at a CNN and Variety Townhall, filmed at the University of Texas.
“My call to action – invite Matthew McConaughey and his friends and family to come see the show and experience the show. And his friend, Timothy Chalamet to the show as well. I want to hear their thoughts,” Adams said.
The show will run from April 30 to May 3 at the Long Center, which the company currently rents for shows while the Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Center is under renovation.
When the center opens in October, Austin Opera hopes to use it to create more revenue by filling South Austin’s need for rehearsal and performance space.
“We’ll have rental revenue streams. We’ll have bar revenue. Hopefully, we can sell a lot of Chardonnay,” Burridge said. “Having our own will enable us also to broaden what we are offering so we can do opera and … chamber music, musical theater, jazz, all kinds of cabaret or recital formats as well.”
The opening will launch the 2026-27 season with “Ofrenda,” which is performed in Spanish and English – another feature of the company’s vision for its future. The opera is the brainchild of Jorge Sosa and John de los Santos as part of the Austin Opera’s Residency for Latinx Creatives.
Alejandra Martinez, one of the residents, said that expanding the language offerings will open up the market and help more consumers connect to the art form.
“If we’re not making the move to say, ‘we’re going to have this speak to you, we’re going to invite you into this world,’ then ultimately we’re to blame,” Martinez said.
Martinez said that opera’s future, monetarily and culturally, rests in its ability to connect its audience to their humanity.
“The thing that vibrates to make noise ranges in size from like the diameter of like, of like a dime or a quarter. It is a miracle that we speak and we sing,” Martinez said. “How wonderful it is to be human and to be able to do that.”
Almost one year ago today, the Texas Longhorns found themselves in the losers’ bracket of their own regional, falling to the No. 3 seed UTSA Roadrunners in the 2025 Austin Regional.
For just a brief moment, it looked as if history was going to repeat itself once again, as the No. 3-seeded Tarleton State Texans got another chance at an upset, beating the Longhorns back in the regular season, 6-1, at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
But today, history was not going to repeat itself — the team that the Texans saw in the regular season was a different animal than the iteration in the winners’ bracket. Under another furious day at the plate for Texas, and an outstanding night on the mound for Dylan Volantis, Texas was not going to fall into the losers’ bracket for a second consecutive year.
“Obviously that guy on the mound, he’s one of the best pitchers, if not the best pitcher in college baseball for a reason,” said Tarleton State head coach Fuller Smith about Volantis. “We didn’t do a very good job, and I don’t know if we would beat anybody tonight, to be honest.”
Longhorns Look Unstoppable
If the past two days proved anything, Texas is playing its best baseball at the most crucial time of the season — in all three fronts of the game.
After a poor showing in the Southeastern Conference tournament by the Longhorns’ top three hitters. Aiden Robbins, Carson Tinney, and Anthony Pack Jr. have carried the brunt of the Texas offense in the postseason.
In the second inning alone, the trio rocketed three straight home runs to put the Texans down an early 6-0 hole, a deficit they would not come out of.
“I remember when I stepped on home plate [Anthony] Pack Jr. greeted me at home,” Tinney said. I looked at him, I was like, ‘It’s your turn now.’ And then two pitches later, he sent one out.”
Defensively, the Longhorns’ outfield, which struggled trying to find the right combination, has finally found the right grouping in Robbins, Pack Jr., and Dariyan Pendergrass.
Robbins and Pendergrass both were able to come up with deep fly ball grabs in the past two games. In the infield, missing core member Ethan Mendoza at second base, nonetheless, has yet to skip a beat.
“Pendergrass is a pretty veteran player, he’s been around the block a few times in college baseball,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Aiden has been a great teammate — Pack [Jr.] has improved greatly over the course of time.”
However, the real star of the regional so far has been the dominance on the mound from starters Luke Harrison and Volantis.
In the regional defining game, Volantis had no issue tossing up the Tarleton State order, who found great success against UC-Santa Barbara in the opening game. The sophomore pitcher lasted 6.2 innings, tossing seven strikeouts and allowing just three hits on the night.
With the giant lead by the time Volantis was pulled in the sixth inning, the Longhorns still have not used any of their premier relief arms in this regional.
“Those two innings were definitely helpful [in the SEC Tournament],” Volnatis said. “I definitely could have done the same without those two innings today.”
Texas now awaits a third rematch with Tarleton State or UC Santa Barbara and will not have to face either of their premier arms — notably Guachos pitcher Jackson Flora, a surefire first-round selection in this year’s MLB Draft.
The Longhorns will roll with Ruger Riojas tomorrow night and likely unload its best arms who have not seen action since the final regular season series against Missouri to seal up their first regional victory in three seasons.
“It’s always good to stay in the winner’s bracket and avoid those moments, but we haven’t won anything yet. We won two games,” Schlossnagle said. “I’m certainly excited about how we played to this point and yes, I’m glad we don’t have to play two tomorrow, but the tournament’s not over.”
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AUSTIN, Texas — One person is dead but has not been identified after the Austin Police Department responded to the scene of a deceased person call in South Austin Saturday afternoon.
According to officials, a deceased person was located in a parking lot just at around 12:25 p.m. at the 4400 Block of Pack Saddle Pass after officers responded to a check welfare urgent call.
The victim was pronounced deceased at 12:36 p.m. The incident is being investigated as a suspicious death, it is not being investigated as a homicide.
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The identity of the victim is still unknown, and the age and sex of the victim has not been released.
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Anyone with information that could help the investigation is encouraged to call the APD homicide unit at 512-477-3588 or APD Crimestoppers at 512-472-8477.
A possible state takeover continues to loom over the Austin Independent School District after the Texas Education Agency denied the district’s request for an accountability pause for three middle schools.
The denial also affects money that would have gone toward Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools, which have each received “F” ratings four times since 2019. A fifth “F” rating would open the district up to a state takeover.
Austin ISD schools expect to see their accountability scores, or grades, later this summer. If Burnet, Dobie, and Webb middle schools receive a fifth “F” each — all in the last seven years — the district could face a state takeover.
Houston ISD was taken over by the state in the 2023-2024 school year, and it has been reported as a rocky ride for teachers and families.
Toni Templeton, a senior research scientist at the University of Houston Education Research Center, said, “Generally, what we’re seeing is a large exodus of both teachers and students from the district.” Templeton and two colleagues released the first part of an ongoing study into the Houston takeover in January. Templeton said, “What that signals to us is that parents are choosing to put students in a different schooling option,” including a neighboring district or charter schools.
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Austin ISD has not been taken over, and the district’s future hinges on the next set of ratings. Asked whether Austin ISD is in a vulnerable place and how likely a takeover is, a district spokesperson provided a statement released by Superintendent Matias Segura on Thursday, saying in part, “Over the last two years, student outcomes have continued to improve across Austin ISD.”
Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin, also pointed to improvement while raising concerns about the state’s authority. “I think the state will take over a school district if it wants to, and I think that’s a problem, but what we’ve got here is we’ve got some information that I think that is hopeful that we’ve got to produce as far as test scores,” Zarifis said.
He added, “Yeah, I think it’s really important to see what they’re doing now? Not, what are they doing in 2022? What are they doing today? What have they been doing the last few years? And there’s been an improvement, and they’re very hopeful for at least two of the schools.”
A Texas Education Agency spokesperson said that because accountability ratings come out in August, it is too soon to speculate.
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