Listen to this LIVE broadcast online by clicking the button at the top of this webpage or by tuning your radio to 89.5 FM on Sunday, January 26 at 2:15 p.m.  It will not be archived for on-demand listening.

KMFA continues our live Listen Local broadcast series of Austin Opera with the company premiere of Everest. This opera, with music by Joby Talbot and libretto by Gene Scheer, tells the tale of one of the deadliest years at Mount Everest in recorded history, 1996.

Bad weather has affected 1996’s climbing season – causing multiple expeditions to attempt to summit on May 10-11. A bottleneck of climbers at the famous Hillary Step has delayed the progress of Rob Hall’s group and has splintered the group in two as a ferocious storm brews and rages around them. The climbers will struggle to overcome elements in their quest for survival.

Austin Opera’s cast features three of the stars of the original Dallas Opera production in 2015. Making their company debuts are bass-baritone Kevin Burdette as Texas native Beck Weathers and tenor Andrew Bidlack as expedition leader Rob Hall. Baritone Craig Verm returns to Austin Opera for his fifth role as doomed climber Doug Hansen. Rounding out the group of adventurers is soprano Heather Johnson, performing Hall’s wife, Jan Arnold.

This 75-minute production features projections portraying the vastness of the mountainous space and nuances of light and weather while the cast of climbers, in heavy gear at the front of the stage, display the human drama unfolding as the orchestra creates the sounds of weather on stage behind them. Sara Schneider and Dianne Donovan will host this live broadcast.

This broadcast is part of KMFA's Listen Local series. This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.