Featured Stories
Detroit: Love, Labor and the Robot Soul
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
From the clang of assembly lines at Ford’s Rouge Plant to the deep thump of bass at an underground techno rave, the Motor City has spent a century dancing with automation. But what happens when the machines start dancing back? When robots don’t just build our cars—but write our music, whisper our names, and maybe even break our hearts?
April 9, 2025
Opera
Hearts in the Cloud
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
If Mozart were alive today, would he swipe right on a chatbot? In Così fan tutte, love is a game of disguise, deception, and delightful disaster. But fast-forward 230 years, and we’re no longer donning mustaches and tricking our fiancées in person. Instead, we’re crafting digital partners —some code, some silicon, some holographic— and falling in love from the glow of a screen.
April 4, 2025
Opera
Mozart’s Mechanical World
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
Imagine yourself in a Viennese salon, sometime around 1780. Candlelight flickers across parquet floors and gold-leafed mirrors, while the hum of intellectual conversation mingles with the delicate strains of a string quartet. Lace sleeves brush crystal goblets, and powdered wigs nod in agreement—or dissent. Amid the elegance, a new marvel is unveiled: not a new sonata or philosophical treatise, but a machine…
March 26, 2025
Opera
“Love Me, Love My Code”
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
Humans have been falling for machines—emotionally, philosophically, and occasionally romantically—since long before Siri flirted back. Opera is full of grand romances, heartbreaks, and impossible love. But what happens when love crosses the boundary between human and machine? The idea of artificial lovers isn’t just a sci-fi fantasy—it’s a theme that has fascinated storytellers for centuries.
March 26, 2024
Opera
The Mechanics of Baroque Opera: Illusion, Engineering, and Spectacle
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
Opera in the Baroque era was as much about visual splendor as it was about music. Audiences didn’t just come to hear exquisite arias—they came for stage magic, for floating castles, fiery infernos, and gods descending from the heavens. The theaters of Handel’s day were laboratories of illusion, where stage designers pushed the limits of technology to transport audiences to enchanted landscapes and mythic battles.
February 17, 2025
Opera
Handel’s Castrati: The Rockstars of the Baroque Stage
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
In the 18th century, long before pop stars filled concert halls with screaming fans, another type of musical idol commanded the spotlight: the castrato. These extraordinary singers possessed voices of unparalleled power, agility, and range. At the height of their fame, they were celebrated, adored, and obscenely wealthy, commanding fees that eclipsed even those of composers like Handel himself.
February 17, 2025
Opera
Handel’s London: A City in Opera
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
In the early 18th century, London was a city of spectacle. Theaters buzzed with energy, coffeehouses teemed with debate, and the newly formed Royal Academy of Music sought to establish Italian opera as the pinnacle of entertainment for the city’s elite. Into this world stepped a 25-year-old German composer named George Frideric Handel, who, in 1711, stunned London audiences with his first Italian opera for the English stage: Rinaldo…
February 10, 2025
Opera
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater programs announced!
We’re so excited to share with you the programs for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater‘s weekend of performances at Dance @ Detroit Opera! We look forward to seeing you there!
January 16, 2025
Dance
Falling Hard
by Austin T. Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
The trope of the “fallen woman” has been a recurring theme in opera for centuries, reflecting societal anxieties about female morality, sexuality, and autonomy. La traviata is perhaps the most famous opera to feature a woman who defies social or sexual norms and faces tragic consequences….
October 15, 2024
Opera
Janáček, Nationalism, and Nature
by Austin Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
Leoš Janáček was born on July 3, 1854, in the village of Hukvaldy, situated in northern Moravia near the Polish border. He was the ninth of teacher Jiří Janáček and his wife Amálie’s fourteen children. In recollections of his childhood, Janáček was fascinated by nature and music, including memories of his father’s beehives, the Babí hora hill and the church gallery where he sang at ceremonial Masses. This picturesque, secluded locale was inhabited by peasants who spoke Lachian, a language combining elements of Czech and Polish. “The silence falls from each tree to the ground,” Janáček wrote of Hukvaldy fondly.
May 10, 2024
Opera
What is (a) Happening?: Black Mountain College
by Austin Richey, Ph.D.
Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera
John Cage came to Black Mountain College in April 1948, during a brief stopover in Asheville, North Carolina. He, along with his partner and collaborative choreographer Merce Cunningham, was en route to the West Coast. The duo travelled to Black Mountain to reconstruct Erik Satie’s play-with-music The Ruse of the Medusa with collaborators Buckminster Fuller, and Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Despite his short stay, this visit proved to be transformative.
February 17, 2024
Opera
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PRE-OPERA TALKS: Così fan tutte
Detroit Opera offers complimentary opera and dance talks one hour prior to each performance. Noted experts provide background and important information on what you will see on stage, enhancing your performance experience! Opera Talks and Dance Talks provide an insightful and entertaining preview of the works performed on stage. Unless otherwise directed, Talks take place…
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PROGRAM: Così fan tutte
Enjoy the performance program from the convenience of your phone! All the information contained in the program book is at your fingertips. Click below for the full experience.
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Detroit Opera House Tours
Join us for a 55-minute Detroit Opera House Highlights Tour (tour locations vary subject to performance schedule). These new tours are open to the public; reservations are required. Tickets are available online or on the day of at the Box Office (Broadway Street). $10 for adults and $8 for students. BUY TICKETS – 11:00am Tour…
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