Cornfields, summer heat and Tosca: Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2026 summer season
Central Iowa in July is not a place most people associate with opera. The corn and soybean fields south of Des Moines run flat and full beneath a wide sky, the heat presses down and the towns along Highway 69 move at the pace of a long summer. The town of Indianola has a grain elevator and a small liberal arts college (empty of students until the fall) and, every summer since 1973, hosts one of the more adventurous opera festivals in the United States.