Live theatre and music performances are slowly returning, even if they aren’t quite back to pre-pandemic traditional settings. The Atlanta Opera is wooing patrons back with two production – “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Threepenny Carmen” – being held outdoors in an open-air tent in the Cobb Energy Centre parking lot.

Atlanta Opera made national headlines last fall when it returned to live performances with a pair of shows in the “”Molly Blank Big Tent Series” on the Oglethorpe University campus.

The series continues with world premiere adaptations of the two classic operas, which has been been “deconstructed to accommodate the particular needs and nature of the current season,” according to director Tomer Zvulun (the artistic alias of the Opera’s artistic director Carl Knobloch).

For “The Threepenny Carmen” (April 15–May 8), Zvulun reimagined Bizet’s masterwork as an exploration of sexual freedom, social hierarchies and the class system, alongside Jorge Parodi, the Artistic Director of Opera Hispanica.

A gem of the Weimar Republic era, “The Threepenny Opera” (April 22–May 9) became a partnership with the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, through which Zvulun has created a streamlined new adaptation while keeping such classic standards as “Pirate Jenny” and “The Ballad of Mac the Knife.”

Live event tickets (sold in both 2- and 4-person socially-distanced “pods”) are available now at atlantaopera.org or by calling (404) 881-8885.

Collin Kelley

Collin Kelley has been the editor of Atlanta Intown for two decades and has been a journalist and freelance writer for 35 years. He’s also an award-winning poet and novelist.