The history of Detroit Opera, formerly Michigan Opera Theatre, is rich in innovation and perseverance. Enjoy this timeline of how we came to be the company we are today.
Detroit Opera: A Historical Timeline
1963
Dr. David DiChiera, a young assistant professor of music at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, is asked to take over Overture to Opera (OTO), the educational program of the Detroit Grand Opera Association (DGOA) who sponsors annual visits from New York’s Metropolitan Opera (the Met) to Detroit.
1964
DiChiera takes the reins of OTO and immediately begins building an opera company, believing the greater Detroit area to be fertile ground for one.
1965
While DiChiera’s first two seasons with OTO are, as planned, programs of scenes from operas performed by the Met Tour in its annual Detroit visit, he greatly expands the number of performances and assembles stellar local casts and production teams.
1966
OTO evolves beyond the Met Tour to become a general introduction to opera, with 19 performances, including seven matinees for students, in venues ranging from auditoriums to high schools.
1967
DiChiera expands the OTO format to include the company’s first complete work, the Michigan premiere of Cherubini’s one-act opera The Portuguese Inn. The season includes 21 performances at 16 different locations.
1968
OTO’s performances of Menotti’s The Medium are its first with an orchestra, which comprises members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
1969
OTO presents the Michigan premieres of Weill’s Der Jasager (The Yes-Sayer) and Donizetti’s Il Campanello (The Night Bell), with the latter featuring an appearance by internationally renowned bass Italo Tajo.
1970
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is presented as OTO’s first full-length operatic production and stars 19-year-old Detroiter Maria Ewing in her professional debut.
1971
OTO moves into Detroit’s Music Hall where it presents the Michigan premieres of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Puccini’s La Rondine.
1972
DiChiera’s company is officially accepted as a member of OPERA America, the national association of professional opera companies.
1973
To formally establish its own identity and begin the process of separating from the DGOA, the company officially changes its name to Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT).
1974
MOT ventures into the realm of light opera with Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and mounts its most mammoth production to date, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.
1975
At Music Hall, MOT stages its first production of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, and of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, featuring soprano Leona Mitchell during her meteoric rise to international stardom.
1976
MOT’s first world premiere, American composer Thomas Pasatieri’s Washington Square, earns national recognition and extensive media coverage.
1978
MOT’s Community Programs Department is founded by nationally prominent composer and arts educator Karen VanderKloot DiChiera. Its activities include the Opera in Residence program and the company’s touring, education, and outreach initiatives.
The MOT Orchestra makes its debut, performing Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers and the company’s first mainstage production of an American musical, Kern and Hammerstein’s Show Boat.
Famed American composer Aaron Copland conducts an MOT revival of his opera The Tender Land at the Midland summer music festival.
1980
MOT presents its first stagings of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Rigoletto.
1981
MOT expands its season to five productions in Music Hall and begins to offer some performances in the operas’ original languages.
The American premiere of Armenian conductor Armen Tigranian’s Anoush launches an exciting new exploration of the opera repertoire beyond the Italian, French, and German mainstreams.
1982
Over the course of the year, MOT reaches an audience of more than 100,000 people.
The company presents the American premiere of the Polish opera The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko, and the Detroit premiere of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.
1984
MOT announces its decision to produce large-scale grand opera at the Masonic Temple Theatre, beginning with a stunning production of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena that features a cast of international stars, including Dame Joan Sutherland and Ben Heppner.
Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd is the final MOT production at Music Hall.
1985
MOT officially moves to the Masonic Temple Theatre for its spring season, and to the Fisher Theatre for its fall season.
1986
With a budget of $4.7 million, MOT establishes itself as the nation’s 10th largest opera-producing organization. The company presents an expanded season of six full-scale opera and musical theater works with 51 public performances.
1988
In the most eagerly anticipated musical event of the year, MOT presents the legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti in his Detroit concert debut at Joe Louis Arena, performing for an audience of more than 20,000.
1989
The Grand Circus Theatre, soon renamed the Detroit Opera House, is selected as the future home of MOT.
MOT commissions a new production of Bellini’s Norma from English artist John Pascoe for Dame Joan Sutherland’s final performance in the title role. The production garners the company its first NPR broadcast.
1990
Classical ballet is added to MOT’s programming with a production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake starring Cynthia Gregory, one of the world’s greatest interpreters of the role.
1991
During a press conference prior to a concert engagement in Detroit, Pavarotti promises to return to help MOT open the Detroit Opera House, providing a tremendous boost to a capital campaign already in progress.
1993
Kim Johnson, former executive director of the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, is named Managing Director of the Detroit Opera House, and charged with overseeing the restoration and renovation of the building.
1995
The Masonic Temple Theatre/Fisher Theatre years come to an end with Puccini’s Tosca featuring famed soprano Maria Guleghina in the title role.
1996
In MOT’s 25th anniversary season, Dame Joan Sutherland declares the Detroit Opera House “open and ready for music” at the Inaugural Gala held on April 21, which features Pavarotti making good on his celebrated promise. It is the single most significant milestone in the company’s history, with the Mayor, the Governor, and the President of the United States all joining the tremendous outpouring of support for this monumental achievement.
The first production staged at the Opera House is Puccini’s La bohème starring tenor Marcello Giordani.
1997
MOT inaugurates its first Season of Dance at the Opera House with two special presentations by America’s premiere ballet company, the American Ballet Theatre.
The Flying Dutchman is presented as MOT’s first Wagner opera.
1998
The spring season opens with MOT’s first staging of Massenet’s Manon featuring Marcello Giordani and Ruth Ann Swenson.
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo present Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which includes an appearance by the president of the company, Princess Caroline of Monaco.
1999
MOT presents The Three Tenors at Tiger Stadium in the trio’s only North American appearance of the year.
Superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli makes his North American opera debut at the Opera House in Massenet’s Werther, the first American production to be webcast.
2000
MOT ushers in a new millennium with the Detroit debut of the Stuttgart Ballet and two operas new to the company, R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Britten’s Peter Grimes.
2002
Dance Theatre of Harlem and The Joffrey Ballet are presented for the first time, as are productions of Verdi’s Otello and Delibes’s Lakmé.
The year closes with a stunning visit from the legendary Bolshoi Ballet, performing Swan Lake.
2003
MOT presents the Michigan premiere of the new American opera Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally, along with performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a rare North American appearance from the mighty Kirov Ballet.
2004
Completion of the Crowning Achievement Campaign allows MOT to begin constructing the Detroit Opera House Parking Center and a six-story office tower adjacent to the Opera House.
2005
MOT hosts the first world premiere to be staged at the Detroit Opera House—Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison’s Margaret Garner, starring internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.
2006
The Ford Center for Arts & Learning opens, making facilities available to expand MOT’s Community Programs and Dance Departments.
2007
The highlight of the year is MOT’s third world premiere—David DiChiera’s magnum opus, Cyrano. The grand, romantic opera, with a libretto by Bernard Uzan, is a tour de force.
2008
The company’s newly formed Children’s Chorus performs concerts and a full staging of the children’s opera The Maker of Illusions by Seymour Barab.
2009
With the economy in steep decline, and after a series of dramatic cutbacks, MOT soldiers on with its presentations, including a spectacular production of Verdi’s Nabucco not seen in Detroit since 1961.
2010
The economy starts to show signs of life, and MOT rides out the recession by reducing its schedule of operas from five to four.
2011
MOT marks its 40th anniversary season.
2012
The company presents its first Baroque opera, Handel’s Julius Caesar, and the MOT debut of New York City Ballet MOVES.
2013
After nearly 50 years at the helm, DiChiera prepares to retire, moving into the position of Artistic Director as native Detroiter Wayne S. Brown becomes MOT’s new President and CEO.
2014
After six years of reduced schedules due to the economic downturn, MOT restores its six-opera season.
2015
MOT presents the Midwest premiere of Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s opera Frida, and features a series of related community events timed to coincide with a major Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
MOT presents Mieczysław Weinberg’s Holocaust-themed opera, The Passenger, and engages with 55 community partners at dedicated events held throughout the run of the work.
2016
The company stages Verdi’s Macbeth for the first time.
2017
DiChiera announces his retirement and his decision to move to emeritus status. To honor his legacy, MOT presents a revival of his opera, Cyrano, and a special DiChiera Grand Salute that includes performances by a host of world-renowned artists, and the announcement that the company’s home will be named the Detroit Opera House—The David DiChiera Center for the Performing Arts.
2018
MOT expands its reach with the help of two contemporary operas—Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27, performed at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts and Ann Arbor’s Arthur Miller Theatre, and Daniel Sonenberg’s The Summer King, which focuses on the life of Josh Gibson, a Negro League baseball star. The latter was supported by events held in partnership with the Detroit Tigers, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Public Library, and other organizations.
2019
Jon Teeuwissen is named Artistic Advisor for Dance and comes to MOT with more than 40 years of dance management experience.
2020
Internationally celebrated director Yuval Sharon joins the company as the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director, and renowned soprano Christine Goerke is appointed Associate Artistic Director.
MOT presents Sharon’s Twilight: Gods, co-commissioned with Lyric Opera of Chicago. The innovative “drive-thru” production in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center is an adaptation of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and features Goerke as Brunnhilde.
2021
With the pandemic beginning to recede, MOT features three in-person, site-specific performances outside the Opera House:
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in concert is held at Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Amphitheatre and conducted by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s newly appointed music director, Jader Bignamini.
Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s contemporary opera, Blue, is performed at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre.
Sharon’s Bliss—a magical moment where the final scene of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is continually repeated over a 12-hour period—is presented at the historic Michigan Building Theatre.
2022
As indoor, in-person opera and dance performances resume, the company changes its name from Michigan Opera Theatre to Detroit Opera (DO), signaling its ongoing commitment to the city.
Roberto Kalb is appointed DO Music Director.
2023
DO’s operatic offerings include its first Spanish-language opera, Osvaldo Golijov’s Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), and a newly conceived production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, with a fully Japanese and Japanese-American creative team.
After 10 years as DO’s President and CEO, Wayne S. Brown announces his plan to retire and pass the torch by the end of the year.
In October, the Board announces that Patty Isacson Sabee, an experienced leader of U.S. arts organizations, will be DO’s next President and CEO beginning January 1, 2024.