Calendar of Events
Below you can find all of our upcoming shows. Check back regularly for news and updates. We look forward to seeing you at the Opera!
Featured Event!
Behind Barbed Wire: EVOLVING
Friday, January 22, 2027 | 7:30pm | Clark Center in Arroyo Grande
MARK YOUR CALENDARS - TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON!!!
Behind Barbed Wire: EVOLVING A Glimpse at Central Coast Japanese American Life During WWII: centers around 1942 Arroyo Grande, a few weeks prior to graduation, when nearly 45% of the High School Graduating Class were bussed with their Japanese-American families to isolated internment camps. Historian Jim Gregory (author of World War II Arroyo Grande), composer Deon Nielsen Price (Behind Barbed Wire), and conductor Brian Asher Alhadeff (OperaSLO Grand Orchestra), are pleased to present a commemoration of that tumultuous time.
This multi-media event is accompanied by a live orchestra and a large 1940s big band, combines soloists, videography, poetry, swing era music, and narration, in a production with specific synergy to the Arroyo Grande region's local heritage of sacrifice, friendship, patriotism, hard work, and community solidarity.
Featuring soloists include Bennett Chew, Baritone (Yonsei, 4th generation); Chika Inoue, Saxophone; Suzan Azaret Davies, Piano; Deon Nielsen Price, Piano; and Kathryn Loomis, Jazz Vocalist; with historic video and People of Honor edited by Highlight Media with narration by Jim Gregory. Original musical compositions by Deon Nielsen Price; stage directed by Justine Prado Manro. The Friendly Neighborhood Big Band is directed by Mitch Latting, and the Opera San Luis Obispo Grand Orchestra with Brian Asher Alhadeff, Music Director and Conductor
Sponsored by: Culver Crest Publications, Osumi Agricultural Company Inc., South County Historical Society, Hayashi Family Farms, Opera San Luis Obispo, an the Clark Center for the Performing Arts.
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The Nutcracker in Oxnard
Saturday & Sunday: December 5 & 6 - Both Performances at 2pm | Oxnard Performing Arts Center
This season the OperaSLO Grand Orchestra begins our Nutcracker tour with Ventura County Ballet at the glorious 1600-seat Oxnard Performing Arts Center! Nutcracker tradition in a new partnership with Ventura County Ballet! There's nothing like ending the year with a grand performance of The Nutcracker with live full orchestra. Join us in Oxnard and make it a stay-cation!
Saturday and Sunday | December 5 and 6, 2027 | Both Performances at 2pm
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
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The Nutcracker in San Luis Obispo
FRIDAY: December 11, 7pm | SATURDAY: December 12, 2pm & 7pm | SUNDAY: December 13, 2pm | Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo
The end of the year means, Civic Ballet San Luis Obispo's presentation of Lorilee Silvaggio’sThe Nutcracker! For over 40 years, the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo has presented this holiday classic (including 25 years performing to sold out audiences). Lori Lee Silvaggio’s The Nutcracker is filled with all the pageantry, magic and wonder that have made this one of the most enduring holiday traditions around the globe. Audiences of all ages will marvel in this spectacular and professional production, accompanied by the OperaSLO Grand Orchestra conducted by Maestro Brian Asher Alhadeff.
Friday, Dec. 11th at 7pm
Saturday, Dec. 12th at 2PM and 7PM
Sunday, Dec. 13th at 2 PM
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
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The Nutcracker in Santa Barbara
FRIDAY: December 18, 6pm | SATURDAY: December 19, 2pm & 7:30pm | SUNDAY: December 20, 2pm | Granada Theater Santa Barbara
The end of the year means The Nutcracker, Santa Barbara-style at one of California's most beautiful venues - the historic Granada Theatre. Audiences of all ages will marvel at the magic and wonder of this spectacular and professional production by Santa Barbara's State Street Ballet, accompanied by the OperaSLO Grand Orchestra conducted by Maestro Brian Asher Alhadeff.
Friday, December 18: 6pm (NEW ADDED PERFORMANCE 2025!)
Saturday, December 19: 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 20: 2pm
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
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THE MUSIC MAN by Meredith Willson
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - MAY 29 & 30, 2027 | Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo
Opera San Luis Obispo is thrilled to present THE MIKADO in the regions first grand production of a Gilbert and Sullivan work!
Perfect for all ages, we love to promise you’ve not experienced live theatre until you see it produced by a grand opera company, and OperaSLO’s production promises to thrill and wow patrons moment-to-moment with expansive sets and costumes, ballet, chorus, an nationally acclaimed leading cast, all accompanied by the full OperaSLO Grand Orchestra conducted by Brian Asher Alhadeff. The production will be choreographed by Drew Silvaggio and stage directed by Marcy Irving in collaboration with Central Coast Gilbert & Sullivan and Civic Ballet San Luis Obispo.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY | OCTOBER 17th and 18th | BOTH PERFORMANCES 2PM
KEY SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES STILL AVAILABLE - CALL TODAY: (805) 782-7342
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AN OPERASLO GRAND PRODUCTION?
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT INTRO VIDEO
MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC MAN:
The Music Man is Meredith Willson’s great American valentine to small-town life — affectionate, hilarious, sentimental, and just skeptical enough to keep the sugar from getting too sweet. Set in fictional River City, Iowa, in 1912, the musical drops one spectacularly confident con man into a town full of stubborn citizens who are absolutely certain they cannot be conned.
Enter Professor Harold Hill, a traveling salesman with no musical ability whatsoever and a brilliant scheme: convince the townspeople that their children are headed for moral ruin, sell them instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band, collect the money, and disappear before anyone notices he cannot actually teach music. His problem is Marian Paroo, the town librarian and piano teacher, who quickly realizes that something about Professor Hill does not quite add up. His bigger problem is that River City begins changing him before he can escape it.
Along the way come some of Broadway’s most irresistible songs: the thunderous “Seventy-Six Trombones,” the tongue-twisting “Rock Island,” the barbershop charm of “Lida Rose,” and the glowing romance of “Till There Was You.” Willson’s score seems to capture an entire American town in music — gossiping neighbors, excitable children, blustering politicians, barbershop quartets, marching bands, and all.
Beneath the brass bands and bunting is a surprisingly tender story about second chances, belonging, and the curious fact that sometimes even a fraud can inspire something real. The Music Man is joyful, romantic, spectacularly tuneful, and proof that if you say “Seventy-Six Trombones” confidently enough, an entire town may just start marching behind you.