Opera Art Tours: La traviata

Opera Theatre of St. Louis is teaming up with the Saint Louis Art Museum for a series of guided tours centered on La traviata. The first one is Sunday, June 6, at 1 PM, with a second date on Sunday, June 20, also at 1 PM. Both tours start at the Visitor Information Center in the Sculpture Hall, in the museum's Main Building.

If you're not familiar with how these work, the tours are part of a partnership between the opera company and the museum. They take opera audiences into the museum's permanent collection to point out sculptures, paintings, and themes that correspond to the company's stage productions. In this case, the focus is La traviata, so you'll be seeing art that echoes the story and the world of that particular opera. Each walk runs about an hour, which is a good length—enough to see a handful of pieces without spending the whole afternoon on your feet.

It's a low-stakes way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and it works whether you're a regular at the opera or just someone who likes the museum. You don't need to have seen the production to get something out of it, and you don't need to be an art historian to follow along. The whole point is the connection between the two, so the tour does the heavy lifting of bridging the gap between the stage and the gallery.

The tours are free, and no reservation is required, so you can just show up. They're on Sunday, June 6 and Sunday, June 20, both at 1 PM, departing from the Visitor Information Center in the Sculpture Hall of the Main Building at the Saint Louis Art Museum.