Of what I got to see there, In A Grove (here in its Pittsburgh Opera incarnation although with the same production) has been haunting me ever since. Something about Christopher Cerrone‘s music and Stephanie Fleischmann‘s libretto works almost like a really good picture book for adults — concise, mysterious, suggesting much more than what occurs on paper. This is the kind of thing that I only wish I could write.
The best thing I saw in 2025 was In a Grove
I had the pleasure of going with some members of the Pittsburgh Opera to the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York at the start of the year- almost unfortunate it was so early on in 2025 because it set my expectations for the year so high!
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Ursula Sturgeon
Ursula Sturgeon is a theatre dramaturg who became obsessed with opera as a toddler and has been wild about it ever since. (Most infants who listened to those Baby Mozart tapes turned out perfectly normal. She did not.) She is based in the Chicagoland area and is particularly interested in finding new ways to connect opera to modern audiences. She has previously served internships at Spotlight on Opera and the Opera Festival of Chicago, and currently presides on the board of directors of Scotch N’ Soda Student Theatre, the oldest co-ed college theatre organization in America. Being one of those young Gen Z whippersnappers, she is currently a student at Carnegie-Mellon University’s School of Drama, and she can be found on Instagram at @zauberfloting.
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Topics: Best of 2025, The Talk of the Town
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People: Christopher Cerrone, Stephanie Fleischmann
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Works: In a Grove
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Places & Organizations: Pittsburg Opera
