Our Story
Founded in 2023, Pico Opera is a new community-based opera company performing intimate productions of bel canto masterworks in the Boston/Cambridge area.
MIT Roots
MIT is without doubt a place with the ability and tendency to attract and foster individuals with lofty goals and diverse talents. Pico Opera is just yet another confluence of such a group of individuals. Pico Opera started out as a simple idea of a few members and friends of the MIT Chamber Chorus from Spring 2023. “How about we do some singing over the summer?” An innocent enough idea. Little did we know at the time the proportions to which this would grow.
In the Fall of 2023, under the name of MIT’s “Pocket Opera Productions,” Pico Opera put up its first ever performance: a semi-staged performance of Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola ossia La bontà in trionfo. An ambitious enough undertaking as it was, it was also an incredible learning experience!
In the Spring of 2024, taking things to the next level, we performed Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, which presented many more challenges and opportunities to explore and grow. Along our journey, we have been fortunate to have had the support of MIT MTA as well as CAMIT who provided us with a seed grant in the Fall of 2023 and a full grant in the Spring of 2024.
Pico Opera
With every production, our vision expanded and eventually surpassed what could be contained by a small MIT-based operation. In the Fall of 2024, MIT Pocket Opera Productions incorporated as a Non-Profit organization in the state of Massachusetts to grow our audience further and demonstrate our commitment to bringing opera to the Cambridge community.
2024-2025 Season
Pico Opera is thrilled to announce our 2024-2025 season, starting with Vincenzo Bellini’s I Puritani. These productions (December-January) will be fully staged with Pico Opera’s first chorus. We are excited to bring this beautiful opera to life in the intimate settings of The Foundry, Cambridge, and MIT’s Killian Hall.