Pittsburgh Opera
Decades of productions, one clear season at a time.
A refresh, not a rebuild, and a new CMS underneath. Lava built Pittsburgh Opera’s previous site too, so this was a facelift plus a platform move, done on an accelerated timeline.
- Client
- Pittsburgh Opera
- What we built
- Website refresh and CMS migration
- Platform
- WordPressMoved fromExpressionEngine
Seasons, productions, performances, and decades of them.
An opera company’s website has a structure most sites don’t. Seasons contain productions, productions contain performances, and every performance has its own tickets, media, and details. Multiply that by decades of history and it gets hard to organize in a way that’s clear to a patron buying tickets and manageable for staff adding next season.
The Opera’s site, which Lava had built, was still doing its job, but the look had aged and the CMS behind it, ExpressionEngine, was getting harder to support. They didn’t need to start over. They needed the site modernized and moved to a platform with a future, without losing the structure that worked.
A facelift, and a platform with a future.
Decades of seasons, productions, and performances, organized so staff can add a season without touching a developer. Moved from ExpressionEngine to WordPress on an accelerated timeline.
- 01A modernized design that gives each production room to breathe while keeping the navigation simple.
- 02A move from ExpressionEngine to WordPress, with the season, production, and performance structure rebuilt as a content system staff can manage.
- 03An archive that preserves the history without burying the current season.
- 04A content management experience built around how the Opera actually works: add a season, add its productions, add each performance.
Same opera. A new season.
Current, and ahead of schedule.
The Opera got a site that looks current and a CMS their team can run, on a timeline shorter than the project plan called for.
Tidy for years, flexible every season.
Keeping decades of content organized as new seasons are added is a structure problem, not a design problem. The framework had to be rigid enough to stay tidy for years and flexible enough for the exceptions every season brings.
Pittsburgh Opera’s new website is a big improvement over our old site. Lava went above and beyond, completing the project on an accelerated timeline. We value their partnership and thank them for their great work.”
Chris Cox
Director of Marketing and Communications, Pittsburgh Opera
Somebody sent you here for a reason.
Tell us what isn’t working and we’ll tell you whether we’re the right fit.