THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN by Detroit. In a 2022 feature on the then-newly appointed Artistic Director of Detroit Opera, Yuval Sharon, New York Times writer and Detroit native Mark Binelli wrote: the future of American opera unfolding in Detroit was not a plot twist I saw coming.” Indeed, despite the many colourful and rich historical aspects of the motor city, a steward of change in American opera was not considered one of its many accolades. Until now. Founded as the outreach arm of The Metropolitan Opera in 1963, Detroit Opera—or Overture to Opera as it was called then—performed only scenes and single acts for its first few years of operation. Originally designed as a “primer” for The Met’s upcoming season, these performances “proved enormously popular,” says David Lyman of the Detroit Free Press. It was not until a 1970’s production of with legendary mezzo-soprano Maria Ewing at the Detroit Institute of the Arts that the company mounted a full production. The following year, the company took on the moniker of Michigan Opera Theatre and made the historic Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts its permanent home.
