Amy Hayes '05 Makes News with Her 'Intimate Opera' Company

January 5, 2012

"I think we have to reduce opera apprehension," Amy Hayes, co-founder and executive director of Intimate Opera of Indianapolis and 2005 graduate of DePauw University, tells the Indianapolis Star. Today's edition of the newspaper offers a preview of Intimate Opera's productions of two half-hour operas, A Childhood Miracle and Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, being staged at IndyFringe tomorrow and January 13.

Intimate Opera was founded to reach the community by presented operatic and staged works to those unfamiliarand familiar with classical music/ opera. The presentations are meant to attract and entertain a small (intimate) audience in a sometimes non-traditional setting.

Hayes, who majored in music performance at DePauw and earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, says, "There's nothing wrong with going to a grand hall for grand opera. But opera is not just one monolithic style. Indy Star Rolled Up What we've decided to do with this is show that opera doesn't have to be scary."