This season, the Utah Opera production of Mozart's Don Giovanni went noir complete with shadowy settings and stylish black-and-white 1950s costumes.
While visual excitement is always part of the production, members of the John A. Moran Eye Center's Patient Support Program, along with more than 100 other blind or visually impaired guests, enjoyed different kinds of sensory experiences at a dress rehearsal during "Blind and Visually Impaired Night 2017."
The group got an inside view of Don Giovanni through background and stories as well as oral descriptions of the intricate costumes and set pieces shared by Utah Opera education director, Paula Fowler, and artistic director, Christopher McBeth.
Guests had the opportunity to handle several of the props and costume materials from the production, including foam-wrapped flowers that were dropped on the stage during the performance. Braille translations of the supertitles and large print copies of the synopsis, as well as headsets through which a play-by-play description of stage action is broadcast from the translator's booth, were also available.
The event, now in its twenty-first year, is an annual collaboration among Moran, the Utah Council for the Blind, and Utah Opera's education department.
Moran's Patient Support Program offers a range of free educational seminars, support, and activity groups for low-vision individuals. Learn more here.