students rehearsing at CU NOW
Welcome to CU NOW!

From Score to Floor: Opera from the Ground Up

By the time an opera production hits the stage, composers and performers have spent years transforming theatrical ideas and music. The interactive CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW) feature the titans of America’s Golden Age of opera working with CU singers on new works on their way to professional world premieres. You'll leave with exciting insights into the creative process when you experience opera from the ground up at CU NOW!

CU NOW 2020 presents "Intelligence"

Librettist Gene Scheer and composer Jake Heggie return to CU NOW to present "Intelligence"! The brand new opera is based on the true story of two highly successful spies during the Civil War: Mary Jane Bowser, a slave in the Confederate White House, and Elizabeth Van Lew, a secret abolitionist from a prominent Richmond family. Together, they create a network to steal critical intelligence from the Confederacy and smuggle it to the Union. They communicate through signals, symbols and codes, sometimes sewn into the fabric of dresses, using their “invisible” status as women to their advantage. But who is to be fully trusted when betrayal is pervasive—even among family? And what happens when the ghosts of ancestors emerge and immense questions of family and identity hover?

Performance dates

Unfortunately, we are postponing this program until 2021 as part of the CU Boulder campus response related to COVID-19. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we navigate this unprecedented situation.

For more information, visit