Under ideal circumstances, producing a full-scale opera is a mammoth task.
Now try doing that during a pandemic while outdoors on a wet spring night in Austin.
Envisioning an epic show that companies many times its size would not risk during the current health crisis, Austin Opera, surely the bravest of its kind in America, decided to stage "Tosca," Puccini's masterpiece, at Circuit of the Americas, the city's Formula One racetrack.
Just to outfit the Germania Insurance Amphitheater stage for the job of handling an opera must have seemed overwhelming. Yet the COTA leadership graciously gave Austin Opera two full weeks to adapt to the space — and the troupe ran with it.