‘Magic Flute’ kicks off Sin City Opera season

For those who think opera is always stuffy and incomprehensible — think again.

Sin City Opera’s 2014-15 season not only features an all-English language lineup but opens with a modern-day version of Mozart’s magical “Magic Flute” dubbed “The Magic Flute on Fremont,” to be presented during free performances at Downtown Container Park.

Leonard Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti” and a Las Vegas premiere of Poulenc’s surrealist “The Breasts of Tiresias” round out the season schedule for Sin City Opera, which bills itself as “Yesterday’s Opera Today.”

Or, as artistic director Skip Galla puts it, “At the core of everything we do is our mission to inspire, challenge and uplift our audiences by creating productions of high artistic quality that celebrate the beauty and breadth of opera, brought to you in an unconventional way,” he states in a news release announcing the troupe’s upcoming season.

The complete schedule:

“The Magic Flute on Fremont” — 8 p.m. Sept. 18-20, 6 p.m. Sept. 21, Downtown Container Park, 707 E. Fremont St.

A free, English-language opera presentation with characters and story inspired by historic Las Vegas — and music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

“Trouble in Tahiti” — 8 p.m. Feb. 20-21, 4 p.m. Feb. 22, 8 p.m. Feb. 27-28, Onyx Theatre, 953 E. Sahara Ave.

Leonard Bernstein’s one-act, English-language opera presents a candid portrait of a suburban couple’s troubled marriage; SCO’s production echoes themes explored in TV’s award-winning “Mad Men.”

“The Breasts of Tiresias” — 8 p.m. May 1-2, 4 p.m. May 3, 8 p.m. May 8-9, Onyx Theatre

The Las Vegas premiere of Francois Poulenc’s two-act opera bouffe (based on Guillaume Apollinaire’s play of the same name) takes place in the imaginary French Riviera town of Zanzibar, near Monte Carlo, and touches on issues ranging from poverty to the press.

Admission to “The Magic Flute on Fremont” is free; tickets to both “Trouble in Tahiti” and “The Breasts of Tiresias” are $15 each and are available by calling 702-732-7225 or visiting www.onyxtheatre.com. For more information on Sin City Opera, click on www.sincityopera.com.