UpTempo - French Opera Night

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is bringing a night of French opera to the Woodruff Arts Center on Thursday, December 3, as part of its UpTempo teen series. The evening starts with an UpTempo session at 6:45 PM on the Goizueta Stage for Youth & Families, hosted by Monique Osorio—an Atlanta-based vocalist, composer, teaching artist, and community organizer. She's joined by guest speaker Dr. Andrea Pérez Mukdsi, a professor of Latin American music at Georgia State University. The session is built around a conversation between a guest speaker and a teen musician, and this one takes the focus to the Paris Opera.

That conversation serves as the gateway to the main event: an ASO concert at 8 PM, conducted by Victor Jacob, a French conductor and former member of the Maîtrise de Radio France. The program pulls from three of the most recognizable names in French opera: Bizet, Offenbach, and Gounod. You'll hear excerpts from Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, and Gounod's Romeo and Juliet—all works that have become staples of the operatic repertoire. The concert runs two to two and a half hours, so if you stay for the whole thing, you're looking at a full evening of music.

UpTempo is designed for teens, and the format pairs a professional musician or educator with a young performer to talk through the music before the orchestra takes the stage. The session is included in the ticket, so you get the conversation and the concert in one go. It's a good way to get a bit of context on the composers and the era before the full orchestra kicks in.

Tickets are $15 per person, and that covers both the UpTempo session and the concert. For school groups of 10 or more students, chaperones get in free. Doors open at 6:30 PM, the session starts at 6:45 PM, and the concert follows at 8 PM.