(upbeat music) - Verdi's witty opera, "Falstaff," comes to life in a locally cast production.

Here to share more is Lynette Owens, Executive Director of Lyrical Opera Theater.

Hi, Lynette.

- Hi, Laura.

Thanks for having me here today.

- Oh, I love, I was just saying, I love concert season, I love performance season.

We get to talk about all the new exciting things that are coming to Utah, and I love your organization and the operas that you perform, and "Falstaff" is actually based on a Shakespeare play.

- It is, "The Merry Wives of Windsor," which is a comedy, and you have it written by, of course, Shakespeare, who is one of the greatest playwrights of all time.

And then that's combined with Verdi, who is one of our greatest opera composers at the height of his musical genius.

And you have that combined with our world-class Utah artists and you are going to have a spectacular night of great artistry on our stage right here at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center.

- That's great.

And this is, is this Verdi's last opera?

- This is, he was 80 years old when he wrote it.

And he ended it with a spectacular fugue, "Tutto nel mondo è burla," which is, "This is a world of jest and everybody is a joker."

That's how he ended his opera career.

- How fun to end your career on such a lighter, playful note like that.

- Right.

It's very fun.

It's very fast-moving, witty, zesty.

Our audiences are going to be laughing and they'll go home filled with joy and inspiration from such great artistry.

- So do you have your cast?

Are you in rehearsals?

- We are in rehearsals.

This Saturday, we're doing our musical run through.

It's mostly double cast.

So, yeah, it's a big, full cast.

- And you get to perform at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center, which is great because parking is easy.

- Parking is easy.

It's a beautiful theater.

It's an intimate setting with great acoustics.

- Oh, wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for coming here to tell us about it.

- Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

- If you'd like to learn more about "Falstaff" from Lyrical Opera Theater and how you can get tickets, the performances are September 13th, 17th, 19th, and the 21st.

And you can get your tickets at lyricaloperatheater.com.

lyricaloperatheater.com.

I'm Laura, thank you for watching "Contact."

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It's what brings us together.

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