Allison Swenson ’07 wants everyone to know that opera is not boring, expensive, or outdated. As a matter of fact, “opera is alive” with “new operas being written all the time.” And yes, there are English subtitles. As general director of Opera Omaha, Swenson is setting the scene for optimum community engagement: “We’re here. We matter. We’re fun.”
But she admits she fell asleep during her first opera (Marriage of Figaro) at age 11. It wasn’t until her teen years that she gave Mozart’s The Magic Flute a standing ovation, and her passion for opera seized center stage: “It was like someone had turned on a light switch, and I went, ‘Oh, this is what it’s all about. This is what my life is going to be.’”
Music informed almost every aspect of Swenson’s early years. She took piano and trombone lessons and sang at events while one of her parents played the piano. Her parents, who were both music teachers, took out a Metropolitan Guild membership in her name as soon as she was born. “I felt different,” she said. “There weren’t a lot of other 12-year-old opera fans in rural central Pennsylvania, and I had great friends growing up, but I always felt a little bit on the outside.”
Ithaca College, at last, gave her a true sense of belonging. A trip to Boston with the college’s women’s choir shines in her IC memories. She spent the bus ride with fellow student Victoria, talking about so much more than music—movies, books, at least an hour on Jane Austen alone. “I really found my crew, the group of people who understood me and accepted me,” said Swenson. And she found