Central City Opera

Built in 1878, the historic Central City Opera House is home to the fifth-oldest opera company in the United States. The company was founded in 1932, and each summer the Opera Music Festival season is presented in the 550-seat historic building. This professional opera music festival has been one of the longest running in the United States and has three or four major productions scheduled each year. A combination of tributes to new artists, American composers and classic favorites make the line-up exciting and fresh each and every season. Other non-musical performances are featured at the Opera House as well, including comedy and ensemble artists, so everyone who visits Central City has something to enjoy.

Some of the favorite performances over the decades have included the American classic “The Ballad of Baby Doe” by Douglas Moore (1956), a story based on the tragic lives of Silver miner Horace Tabor, his wife Augusta, Baby Doe and the Matchless Mine located in Leadville, Co. The one-act opera entitled “The Face on the Barroom Floor” by Henry Mollicone (1978) was extremely well received. The Face on the Barroom Floor is a painting on the floor of the Teller House Bar in Central City, Colorado, painted in 1936 by Herndon Davis. It became the inspiration for the chamber opera by Henry Mollicone. Another favorite was the opera “Gabriel’s Daughter” also by Henry Mollicone (2003).

More recently, a World Premier of Chinese opera “Poet Li Bai” in connection with the Asian Performing Arts of Colorado was enjoyed at the Opera House in 2007. This opera is Guo Wenjing’s deeply moving tribute to one of the great literary figures of China, the “Poet Li Bai.” The opera has gone on to enjoy success in Asia and elsewhere around the world. Each season, there are also performances scheduled which are shorter works specifically for young people including “Opera à la Carte (selected ten-minute opera scenes), and 30-minute cabarets, along with solo luncheon performances called Victorian Salon Recitals, all produced to compliment the main opera season line-up.

The prestigious Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program has been created to cultivate the talents of new assistant directors and apprentice singers to further their artistic abilities. Over the past two decades, the program has been recognized as a model for other programs around the country. Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus John Moriarty has structured a 10-week program to teach approximately 30 students selected from among 1,000 applicants “daily training in diction, movement, and stage combat with individeal coaching, sessions in career management and rehearsals and performance opportunities in the summer’s mainstage and auxiliary productions.”

The Central City Opera House reaches out to the community with Youth Opera Programs – Bringing dynamic singing artists into the schools for a performance, workshops and masterclasses. There are family matinees during the summer festival, and Summer Performing Arts Intensive for high school students offered. In addition to the education and resources offered, Central City Opera Ensemble artists tour the Rocky Mountain region and the Opera comes to you!

Central City Opera Photo Gallery

Getting to the Central City Opera House

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