Lucky for us, people have already given their spin on what a Madame Butterfly   cocktail would look like. The specific one we want to highlight is this Madame Butterfly   cocktail created by Opera Feasts. This cocktail stands out for its inclusion of verjus, a tart and fresh juice made of unripe wine grapes, and yuzu, a sweet and sour citrus fruit. The combination of these ingredients also creates a dark orange color that we believe suits the old Hollywood setting of our Butterfly   production. For a mocktail alternative, we wanted to find something that also features yuzu. We decided on this Green Tea Sour. (It’s worth noting that the recipe includes bitters, which can easily be omitted if you’d like.) It's a sweet and sour, easy-to-sip drink with a complex and interesting flavor profile.  

Romeo and Juliet 

With how popular Romeo and Juliet   is, it should be no surprise that bartenders have tried their hand at creating a drink based on the Bard’s famous play. For this blog though we want to highlight the Juliet & Romeo, which is a gin-based cocktail designed to appeal to gin haters. The creator of the cocktail, Toby Maloney, described the taste as “a walk through an English garden,” which we can see with its refreshing combination of lime, cucumber and mint. For nonalcoholic alternatives, there’s no shortage of refreshing cucumber and lime options for you to choose from. Here’s a simple cucumber lime mocktail that you can make at home, sure to help you beat the summertime heat. 

Cosi fan tutte 

For our Cosi fan tutte inclusion, let’s include a drink inspired by the opera’s composer. The cocktail, concocted by composer Greg Anderson, is called The Amadeus Affair and is another refreshing gin drink. It's quite a bit different from the Juliet & Romeo, with its inclusion of elderflower liqueur and tarragon. This cocktail aims to imitate what Anderson believes Mozart music is like, which he breaks down in his recipe. We love the elderflower flavor, so we wanted our mocktail alternative to include it as well. We decided to offer this blueberry lime elderflower mocktail, which offers that unique elderflower taste in a refreshing form. It’s also a very quick drink to put together if you’re looking for something to mix up for those impromptu summer gatherings.  

Ainadamar 

Since Ainadamar   is so new, there hasn’t yet been a chance for the opera to get its own cocktail. But since the opera is about Spanish figure Federico Garcia Lorca and details Spanish history, we felt it appropriate to include one of Spain’s classic cocktails. We decided to go with Tinto de Verano, which is a cold, wine-based drink that’s very popular in Spain. Here is the New York Times’ recipe for the drink, which adds an optional syrup addition if you want to upgrade your drink. The drink is very similar to sangria, which we’d also thought of putting on the list. That said, sangria does have plenty of alcohol-free versions that we thought would be perfect to include here. This sangria mocktail is filled with delicious fruits and is easy to make in large amounts for a party. Just make sure to prepare it in advance, as it does take some time to chill.  

Rigoletto  

For our last mainstage show of the season, we wanted to again include a drink that highlights the opera’s composer. We thought that the complex nature of this cocktail, called the Verdi, fits this classic tragedy well. But there are still plenty of fruity ingredients, including melon liqueur and peach schnapps, that help give this drink an element of sweetness. Since this cocktail calls for quite a few different flavors, we decided to pick just two of them to inspire our matching mocktail, and we discovered this pineapple-peach mojito mocktail, a refreshing alternative to the Verdi. 

We hope that you give one of these drinks a try. Cheers to our final summer memories!