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Michigan Opera Theatre Hosts
Concert to Commemorate
Tenth Anniversary of
the Detroit Opera House
* * *
DETROIT, Michigan, March 28, 2006…Ten years ago, a dream became reality: the magnificent Detroit Opera House. Following years of painstaking work, the renovated and restored opera house opened to the public with a black tie concert featuring some of opera’s most acclaimed artists. Michigan Opera Theatre will commemorate the tenth anniversary of this milestone on Thursday, April 27, 2006, at 7:30 p.m., with a special concert, featuring artists from the company’s upcoming productions of Aida and Cinderella.
Celebrating a decade of divas, drama and dreams, the concert will be hosted by Dr. David DiChiera, Founder and General Director of Michigan Opera Theatre. It will feature Salvatore Licitra, Indra Thomas, Donato Di Stefano, Kenneth Tarver, Irina Mishura, Vivica Genaux, Antonello Palombi, Lisa Daltirus, and Hao-Jiang Tian, accompanied on piano by Danielle Orlando, singing arias from a variety of operas. The concert is made possible by the generous support of Ford Motor Company.
Tickets for the Detroit Opera House Tenth Anniversary Concert range from $10-$35, and are available in person at the Detroit Opera House ticket office (1526 Broadway, Detroit, 48226), by phone at (313) 237-SING (7464), or online at www.MichiganOpera.org. A special $100 Patron ticket which includes valet parking, seating in a box and a special desert reception with the artists is available through the Michigan Opera Theatre Development Department, at (313) 237-3425.
The Detroit Opera House
Michigan Opera Theatre, founded some 35 years ago, began as nomadic regional opera company, presenting grand opera, operetta and musical theatre on a number of Detroit’s great stages. In 1989, seeking a permanent home large enough to accommodate the needs of its growing audience, and also the technical demands of grand opera, the company purchased a neglected movie palace in the heart of Detroit’s theatre and entertainment district.
The theater, designed by famed architect C. Howard Crane, opened in 1922 as the Capitol Theater. At the time, the (then) 4,000-seat movie palace was hailed as the fifth largest of its kind in the world. One of 50 Crane-designed jewels in Detroit (others include the Fox Theatre, Orchestra Hall, the State Theatre), the Capital was designed in style of the European Opera House.
The theater would change hands, and names, several times in its history, becoming the Paramount Theater briefly, and eventually the Grand Circus Theater, which hosted rock and pop acts up into the 1980s. Eventually vacated, the theater fell into disrepair, becoming victim to thieves and vagrants.
Following Michigan Opera Theatre’s purchase of the property in 1989, a tremendous fundraising effort was launched to cover the expenses of renovation and restoration. Local artisans worked diligently to repair years of neglect, replacing some 80 percent of the house’s decorative plaster work, and painstakingly recreating detailed decorative painting. A new stage house and orchestra pit, capable of meeting the large-scale demands of grand opera were constructed, giving the theater the largest stage in Detroit. With nearly perfect acoustics and sightlines, the (now) 2,700-seat theater would provide a perfect home to the expanding opera company.
On April 21, 1996, Dame Joan Sutherland officially declared the new Detroit Opera House “open and ready for music.” In the years since its opening, the Detroit Opera House has been host to countless events, ranging from comedy acts and musical performances to world-class ballets and an operatic world premiere. In this time, Michigan Opera Theatre has continued to develop the Detroit Opera House, moving administrative offices into the Madison Ave. office tower, constructing a state-of-the-art parking facility adjacent to the theater, completing aesthetic restoration within the theater and renovating the Broadway Street office tower to create the new Ford Center for Arts and Learning.
Peripheral Events
In conjunction with the Tenth Anniversary Concert, Michigan Opera Theatre will host an open house for the new Ford Center for Arts and Learning on April 27, 2006, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The open house will feature light refreshments as well as tours of the Ford Center, and educational demonstrations on vocal music and dance. The open house is open to the public, free of charge.
In celebration of both the 10th anniversary of the Detroit Opera House and the 35th anniversary of Michigan Opera Theatre, the company will open its spring opera season with a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida (April 22-30).
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