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Masks Come Out At New Braunfels New Year's Eve Gala

Roxanne Dorn
2015 Die Fledermaus event

A scrappy young opera company is staging a masked ball in New Braunfels on New Year's Eve. It’s the Hill Country Opera, headed by Arden Dorn.

 

"We've been producing about 10 shows a year throughout the Hill Country, mostly in the old opera houses, and we've even been in places like out under an oak tree, doing an opera,” he said. “So we're a very creative opera company. Small, but anybody who comes to the performances has fun."

IF YOU GO What: "A Night in Old Vienna" Where: Civic Center, 375 S Castell Ave.,New Braunfels When:  7:30 p.m. Sunday Cost:  $85

They're creating a Texas version of an event that has deep roots in Austria, adapting a 200-year-old Johann Strauss operetta called "Die Fledermaus."

“We're calling it ‘A Night In Old Vienna’ because that tradition has gone on in Vienna ever since, and we are making it a tradition now in New Braunfels,” he said. “This is our third year."

"A Night In Old Vienna" will be featured at the New Braunfels Civic Center on New Year's Eve. The event includes drinks, dinner, the main performance and a midnight toast.

New Years Eve ball at the New Braunfels Civic Center.

And Dorn said it also features the best opera singers in South Texas.

“It's a great cast," he said. "We have a 25 piece orchestra, 20 voice chorus and just a wonderful lineup of other local talent, such as a street musician."

Meanwhile, images from Vienna will fill screens throughout the interior of New Braunfels' Civic Center as masked revelers celebrate.

"It's not necessary to have a mask, but if you have never attended masquerade ball, they're great fun, and this operetta lends itself perfectly to such an evening," he said.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii