STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Summer Symphony Director Alasdair Neale will take up his baton in Boise this coming spring.

Neale will conduct the orchestra for Opera Idaho’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” April 6 and 8.

The opera written by Andre Previn is a Made in the USA opera based on the 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by American playwright Tennessee Williams. And it will star up-and-coming soprano Julie Adams as Blanche, the loquacious destitute woman who avoids reality, living in her own imagination.

Mark Junkert, the general director of Opera Idaho, will present a free lecture about the play, which was made into a movie in 1951 and an opera in 1995, at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 22, at Ketchum’s Community Library.

While Neale has conducted pieces from operas during the symphony season, this is his first fully staged opera, Junkert said.

“We met in San Francisco last spring to meet about him doing something during the 2019-20 season. I mentioned, ‘Streetcar,’ and he said, ‘Let’s do it!’ ” said Junkert, who assumed the leadership of Opera Idaho  in 2008 after serving as managing director of Skylark Opera  in St. Paul, Minn., and as executive director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, a New York-based organization dedicated to training young opera singers.

The timing is right for something like this that takes a Sun Valley presence to Boise, Junkert said.

Opera Idaho has been growing its Sun Valley followers since it began holding semi-staged operas in Ketchum a few years ago. Phoebe Boelter and Carol Nie, who have homes in Sun Valley, serve on Opera Idaho’s board.

Opera Idaho’s audience has been consistently growing and its budget is double what it was 10 years ago when Junkert arrived.

Junkert attributes that to a mix of favorites, like “Madama Butterfly,” which the company is staging this month, and innovative contemporary pieces that appeal to young audiences.

Last year, for instance, Opera Idaho staged a contemporary opera concerning a Vietnam War veteran in a hangar at Gowen Field.

“People came in and looked at a drug enforcement jet parked next to the set and they knew they were in for a different experience,” Junkert said. “It wasn’t normal theater—it put the audience on edge, at attention. Opera companies are getting innovative with their staging, finding alternative venues that  can add visual impact and appeal to younger audiences.”

Next year Opera Idaho will stage Gilbert and Sullivan’s new version of “Mikado,” which is set in England, rather than Japan, and sung in English.

Opera Idaho is also looking for a dedicated theater in Boise that would seat between 900 and 1,200 and could be shared with other art groups.

The Egyptian Theatre is a big step up from Boise High School where the company used to stage its productions. But the Egyptian was designed as a movie theater in 1927. With 700 seats, it offers intimacy, ensuring everyone has a seat close to the action. But Opera Idaho would like more.

The Morrison Center, which offers 2,100 seats, is too big and has scheduling problems.

Opera Idaho also has started a young artist program for young singers who spend three months to a year doing pop-up performances and filling in any other way they can.

This past fall, three young artists spent two months staging the hour-long “Elixir of Love” for 17,000 students in Boise and other Treasure Valley cities, as well as McCall, Blackfoot and Pocatello.

The elixir, Junkert noted, was not wine but rootbeer, given the audiences’ age.

“Opera as a classical art form is doing well,” he said. “A lot of newer works are being written to play to younger audiences. And the innovative staging is drawing people in, as well.”