Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre is gearing up for the one month it plans for during the other 11.

The 2015 season includes five major productions, including a musical based on 410-year-old novel “Don Quixote” and the one-act opera “Bon Appétit!,” based on television chef Julia Child baking a chocolate cake.

“I can’t think of another festival like us that does both grand opera and musical theater, and does both with full orchestration,” said founding director Michael Ballam. “We have a full philharmonic orchestra, and we like to do works from the era of those wonderful musicals that were performed with an orchestra.”

Broadway musicals at commercial theaters of today use 13 musicians at most, Ballam said, and a synthesizer is among the instruments.

“We are one of the last hallmarks left that treats Rodgers and Hammerstein with the same respect as we treat Mozart,” Ballam said. “It makes us very unusual. And in two and half days, a person could see five different works, two operas and three musicals. People come from New York, Chicago and San Francisco to see five works in less than three days. “

The four major stage productions this year, to be presented on various dates between July 8 and Aug. 8, are “Man of La Mancha,” with Ballam as Don Quixote, “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “La Boheme” and “Carousel.”

And besides three performance of the comic “Bon Appétit!,” events will include a tribute to Richard Rodgers, an appearance by The Pianists!, a chamber series, tours, an international opera competition, demonstrations, a gala dinner, and selections from and workshops on other operas.

“We have 136 events this summer,” Ballam said. “We are not just a repertory theater company. We are a festival. Just like the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, we deserve that title. And we’ve got cooler weather up here, and better ice cream, too.”

That would be Aggie Ice Cream, available at intermission, along with other local treats.

“And there’s no other opera company in America where the public can meet the stars and mingle with them. They enjoy meeting the audience, too. Most of the time, opera singers are kept on a pedestal.”

• “La Boheme” plays at 7:30 p.m. July 8, 23, Aug. 1 and 7, and at 1 p.m. July 17 and 25.

“People know many of the melodies, they just don’t know they came from ‘La Boheme,'” Ballam said. “It’s an opera that is accessible to so many people, and it’s wonderful to bring children to. I the film ‘Moonstruck,’ the woman forced the man to go to ‘La Boheme,’ and it changed both of their lives forever, in positive ways.” 

• “Carousel” plays at 7:30 p.m. July 9, 15, 17, 22, and 25, and at 1 p.m. July 30, Aug. 1 and 7.

“The New York Times hailed it as the greatest musical of the 20th century, and I agree,” Ballam said. “Richard Rodgers said it was his best work, and he said it was his thank you card to God for blessing him with the talents he was able to use in his lifetime. It’s a gripping drama.”

• “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” plays at 7:30 p.m. July 10, 16, 18, 30 and 31, and at 1 p.m. July 24 and Aug. 8.

“It’s as funny today as the was in the early ’60s,” Ballam said. Composer and songwriter “Frank Loesser was a genius. It’s a laugh a minute.”

• “Man of La Mancha” plays at 7:30 p.m. July 11, 24, 29 and Aug. 6, and at 1 p.m. July 16, 18, 23 and 31.

“It’s our linchpin,” Ballam said. The novel is “… the oldest and largest literary work extant, bigger the ‘Les Miserables,’ bigger than Shakespeare. It’s an epic drama that describes the human condition, and it forces people to make some decisions about their own quests.

“And to have taken ta work of that size and distilled it into a musical took pure genius. People know the song ‘Impossible Dream’ unless they have been living on Pluto.”

“Bon Appétit!,” with a first act about Julia Child and a second act of songs about food, plays at 7:30 p.m. July 17 and 25, and 1 p.m. Aug. 6. Singer Vanessa Schukis stars, and tickets are $35 to $45 through ArtTix.com. For a full schedule of events, visit www.utahfestival.org.

Contact reporter Nancy Van Valkenburg at 801-625-4275 or nvan@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @SE_NancyVanV; on Facebook at facebook.com/SE_NancyVanV.

PREVIEW

• WHAT: Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre
• WHEN: Through Aug. 8. Schedule, www.utahfestival.org
• WHERE: Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 S. Main St., Logan
• TICKETS: $12-$76 for major productions, www.arttix.com. Other prices vary.