Opera Colorado

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Opera Colorado is an opera company located in Denver, Colorado. It was founded in 1981 (with its first performances in 1983) by Nathaniel Merrill and Louise Sherman, who came to Denver from long careers at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. They had hoped that opera would flourish in Denver, but there was no suitable venue, and performances were given in the in-the-round Boettcher Hall, a part of in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and used primarily as a concert hall.

In spite of the location, there has been an impressive list of international opera stars who have appeared in Denver. These include Plácido Domingo, Catherine Malfitano, James McCracken, and Pilar Lorengar in the first season, and following seasons have seen Justino Diaz, Eva Marton, Cornell MacNeil, James Morris, Sherrill Milnes, and Samuel Ramey appear in Opera Colorado productions.

With his appointment as Artistic Director of the company in 2000, James Robinson set about re-configuring the hall to provide a three-quarter thrust stage which also required required the use of microphones. As Peter Russell, the new President and General Director appointed in 2001, noted: “if you tried to sing in that big cavern of a space without amplification, the voices would simply go nowhere”^[1].

Both men came from solid opera backgrounds: Robinson's work has been seen New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Ireland, and many more, while Russell joined Opera Colorado after leading the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera following his directorship of the Wolf Trap Opera Company.

However, beginning in September, 2005, Opera Colorado moved its performances to the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House. This move to a house conducive to the proper presentation of opera has led to increases in the donor base and subscribers for the present season. It will also allow the company to work with others on co-productions in ways which were not possible before. As Russell notes, the effect of the new opera house “has changed the complexion of this opera company in a way that is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience”^[2].

In addition to performances in the theatre, education and outreach performances have been given in countless schools, community centers, assisted living facilities in the Denver metro. Since 2002, Opera Colorado's education programs have grown by 278% and served nearly 25,000 people in 2004.