After a successful first performance in the summer of 2015, Scenic City Opera isn't letting challenges in finding a permanent venue stall production.
Spearheaded by Collegedale native Laura Sage when she moved back to Chattanooga from Los Angeles in 2014, the local opera is currently casting for its second - and much larger - performance scheduled for later this year.
Though Sage has spent the past year finalizing behind-the-scenes components for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit company, the goal is still to increase the number of shows to several per year.
Sticking to its mission of making opera more accessible and understood by the general public, the group's second performance will be a rarely performed but widely known story of vampires, "Der Vampyr."
"[It] is pretty rarely performed," Sage said. "I produced it back in 2001 in Los Angeles, and that was the first staging of the opera west of the Mississippi River - ever. Since then, a few other companies have also produced it, including in Louisiana and Massachusetts, but it's still a pretty rare work to get to see. I think it will be a big treat for Chattanooga to be able to boast a production of this rarity."
Though the performance will be much different from the company's debut opera, Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" set to a "Star Trek" theme and performed in English, Sage said she hopes the city will be equally excited about the new production.
"We want to make attending the opera fun and delightful and uplifting," she said. "It shouldn't be some expensive, dour, stick-in-the-mud experience where you watch some boring people dressed in fancy clothes standing there singing unintelligible words at you. Opera should be exciting and entertaining, and relevant.
"Even if it's in another language, it shouldn't be difficult to follow the story. There is a whole world of operas out there that are almost never performed, but definitely deserve to be. These are the things SCO brings to Chattanooga."
The company is looking for public involvement, from volunteers to work behind the scenes for the upcoming production, to financial donations and board members.
To find out more about Scenic City Opera or to get involved, visit sceniccityopera.org.