Central City Opera Walking Tour

Now that the opera season has started, I’m sure everyone is planning their trips up to Central City to see one (or more!) of our lovely operas. Since you’re all making the trek (at least, we hope you are), I thought I’d fill you in on what else there is to see in Central City that relates to the opera.

Central City Opera House: John Moriarty (Central City Opera's Artistic Director Emeritus) could tell you more about the Opera House than anyone else you’d meet here, and I know he could tell you more than I can. I’ll tell you a little bit of the history of the house though, in case you don’t run into Mr. Moriarty on the street. The Opera House was built by Cornish and Welsh miners in 1878. It was designed by Colorado architect Rob Roeschlaub, and its ceiling murals were painted by San Francisco artist John Massman. The Opera House now seats 550 people, and is operated primarily during the summer by the Central City Opera House Association. It's gorgeous, so take a tour if you can!

Williams Stables: The Stables were built in 1876 for use of the Teller House, but Sheriff Dick Williams bought it four years later. He and his son Oscar operated the stables until 1953, when the Opera House Association acquired it. Central City Opera now uses it for rehearsals, recitals, performances by artists of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program, and cast parties.

Teller House: The Teller House Hotel was opened in 1872 and turned into “the most elegant hotel between Chicago and San Francisco.” President Grant even stayed there in April of 1873. The Rocky Mountain National Bank was on the Teller House’s street level from 1874 to 1915, and Central City’s first telephone exchange was once headquartered there. The most famous part of the Teller House, however, might be Herndon Davis’ “Face on the Barroom Floor,” which has been turned into an opera and is one of our Festival Extras.

Johnson House: I've been wondering about the history of the Johnson House for a while, but I only just found out about it this morning, thanks to the historical wisdom of Mr. John Moriarty. Apparently, the Johnson House used to be owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Lowe. Mr. Lowe was a mining engineer, and he may have used the building across the street (now Festival Hall) as an office. After Mr. Lowe died, Mrs. Lowe sold the Johnson House, and it eventually came to be acquired by the Johnson family. (Mr. Johnson, it turns out, was employed by Atlantic Richfield Oil, which eventually merged with another oil company and become a subsidiary of the US's favorite oil company, BP. But that's besides the point.) Anyway, Mrs. Johnson eventually gave the house to the Opera company. It is now primarily used for receptions and such, but occasionally we interns get to go in there for meetings, which is always fun. It’s also deeply amusing to walk into the downstairs bedroom in Johnson House, because the quilt on the bed matches the wallpaper. Creepy!

Festival Hall: Thanks to some fun facts I learned from John Moriarty this morning, Festival Hall is one of my new favorite places in Central City. Mr. Moriarty informed me that the building used to be a brewery, a casino, a dry goods store, and a private residence. Cool, huh? In fact, if you look carefully at the top of the building, you can still (barely) see the word "CASINO" written across the top. The offices of the house manager (this year the lovely Shannon O’Connor Kenney), the company switchboard, and the desks of the interns who work out of the office (including me) are all in Festival Hall now.

Foundry: Foundry Rehearsal Hall is where the real action of the opera happens. That’s because it houses – you guessed it – our rehearsal spaces. The building itself used to be a foundry owned by the McFarlane family, but it fell apart from disuse over the years, and they sold it to the Opera House Association in the early 1990’s. They renovated it and made it into our rehearsal building. It now houses three rehearsal halls, the stage management office, and many practice rooms.

The Gilpin County History Museum: The History Museum doesn’t officially have any connection to the Opera House Association, but I figured I’d point it out in case you had a yen to learn more history than I can give you. The Museum has some great new displays and is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the history of Central City or of the surrounding areas.

Central City Visitors Center: The Visitors Center is another place with no official connection to the Opera, but they get props anyway. Their Walking Tour brochures are the source of much of the history in this post (thanks guys!) and their employees are friendly and happy to talk about Central City and the Opera.

Marc Shulgold's Fun Facts on THREE DECEMBERS

Today we bring you more "fun facts" from Marc Shulgold, former music critic of the Rocky Mountain News, focusing on Three Decembers by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer.

• Now an internationally respected opera and art-song composer, Jake Heggie began his composing career in an unusual way – as a member of the Public Relations Department at San Francisco Opera. It was there that he had befriended famed mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who encouraged him to write songs for her – ironically, it was von Stade who, years later, would bid farewell to the opera stage singing Maddy in Heggie's Three Decembers.
• This three-player chamber opera has undergone a number of transformations and name changes. It began as a 14-page play by Terrence McNally, presented as part of “A Joyous Family Christmas” AIDS benefit concert in New York's St. Bartholomew's Church in December, 1999. The playwright's contribution was Some Christmas Letters (and a Couple of Phone Calls, Too), performed by celebrated actors Betty Buckley, Victor Garber, Julie Harris and Cherry Jones. When Houston Grand Opera commissioned Heggie to create a chamber opera for HGO's 2007-08 season, he teamed with Gene Scheer to fashion a libretto. Based on McNally's playlet, the opera was given the working title Last Acts and starred von Stade. After its Houston premiere in Feb., 2008, the piece was re-named Three Decembers.
• Von Stade was intimately involved in the creation of the opera, which at first was envisioned by the creative team as a musical. The mezzo directed Heggie and Scheer to rethink it as an opera. “She was right, and instantly it fell into place,” Heggie later remarked.
• Heggie and McNally's most successful partnership came in the much-acclaimed (and much-performed) opera Dead Man Walking (premiered in 2000). Local opera-lovers may remember another collaboration between the two: At the Statue of Venus, a “scene for soprano and piano” with text by McNally that was commissioned by Opera Colorado for the 2005 opening of the Denver's Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The piece was to be sung by Renée Fleming, but she withdrew from the premiere. Instead it was premiered by Kristin Clayton (the original Bea in Three Decembers) with Heggie accompanying at the keyboard.
• Three Decembers traces three decades in the relationships between Maddy, a Broadway star whose husband had died years earlier, and her adult children, Bea, a married woman, and Charlie, a gay man dealing with the death of his partner. Heggie has said that he identifies strongly with the tensions between Maddy, a single parent, and her children, since he had lost his father through suicide as a young boy. Von Stade, too, found that the characters resonated with her own family life, noting the similarities between Maddy and the singer's mother: “It's her! The only thing I don't do onstage (as Maddy) is smoke.”
• Heggie and Scheer have collaborated on numerous stage and concert works, most recently receiving rave reviews for their operatic setting of Moby-Dick, premiered in April at Dallas Opera. 

Pictured above, clockwise from top left: Keith Phares (Charlie), Emily Pulley (Bea) and Joyce Castle (Madeline) in Central City Opera's THREE DECEMBERS (2010). Photo by Kira Horvath.

Be sure to check out the other fun fact blogs on Madama Butterfly and Orpheus in the Underworld. 

Marc Shulgold’s Fun Facts on ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD

Today we bring you more "fun facts" from Marc Shulgold, former music critic of the Rocky Mountain News, focusing on Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach.

• Born Jakob Eberst in 1819 in Cologne, Germany, Jacques Offenbach was the son of a Jewish cantor and amateur musician. His father changed the family name to Offenbach in honor of his German hometown. At 14, Jakob attended the Paris Conservatory for only a year, but decided to make Paris his home, often playfully referring to himself there as “Monsieur O de Cologne.”
• Orpheus in the Underworld (a polite translation of Orphée aux enfers – more accurately, “Orpheus in Hell”) was a raucous satire – thumbing its nose at Greek mythology, at Gluck and his treatments of the Orpheus myth, as well as at various figures and scandals in contemporary French society. No surprise that the operetta drew a rash of indignant critical slurs soon after its premiere in 1858. One writer labeled the work “une parodie grotesque et grossière” (a coarse and grotesque parody) that gives off “une odeur malsaine” (an unhealthy odor). Naturally, such reviews helped spur ticket sales, soon packing Offenbach's 50-seat theater, the Bouffes-Parisiens, for 228 straight performances.
• Among those visiting Offenbach's tiny theater was Rossini, who called Offenbach “the Mozart of the Champs-Elysees.” An opposing view was expressed by another visitor, Richard Wagner, who described the music he heard as “a dung heap on which all the swine of Europe wallowed.”  
• The famous Can-Can heard in Act II of Orpheus is actually titled “Infernal Gallop” (galop infernal). In addition to its frequent use as accompaniment to that racy French dance, the music was adapted by Saint-Saens in his Carnival of the Animals – now slowed to a crawl in the lower strings to depict the tortoise. 
• In the spirit of the work's playful satirical bent, a 1980s English-language production mounted in London by English National Opera poked fun at then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher through the character Public Opinion, the self-proclaimed guardian of morality.  
• Sign on the door of a music shop: “Gone to lunch. Bach at One – Offenbach sooner.”

Above Right: Joyce Campana (Public Opinion) and Edward Mout (Orpheus) in Central City Opera’s ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD (2010). Photo by Mark Kiryluk.

 Be sure to check out our previous blog entry of Marc Shulgold's Fun Facts on Madama Butterfly.

Opening Day 2010

Opening Day 2010 dawned gray and chilly last Saturday, but everyone was in high spirits, in anticipation of the day. The 2010 Central City Opera Flower Girls - Caroline Jeanne Ferguson Wong, Claire Hopkins Peterson, Rebecca Evelyn Gleichenhaus, and Meghan Alexandria Colip - gathered in the Teller House with their escorts to get ready to be presented to society. Meanwhile, we ushers gathered in front of Festival Hall in preparation for our own unique presentation: the Usher Song.

Thanks to fellow usher Kristin Orlando for this photo.

Later that afternoon, it started to pour, and for a few minutes we were all worried we'd have to do the Flower Girl ceremony inside. Luckily, the rain cleared up in time for everything to work out as planned. The girls were presented to the waiting crowd, and everyone cheered and complimented them on their lovely dresses. We ushers then sang and marched to the Usher Song. General/Artistic Director Pat Pearce ceremoniously opened the opera house doors for the first time in 2010, and declared that the festival had officially begun.

Then it was time for the waltz.

Photo Credit: Erin Joy Swank

Afterwards, everyone went off to dinner in the Teller House and then to the opening performance of Madama Butterfly. It went well from all aspects, and everyone was delighted to have been a part of such a lovely day.

Central City Happenings

It's almost time for the season to start, and Central City is buzzing with people and activity. The season doesn't officially begin until Saturday, but Madama Butterfly's final dress rehearsal is today, which means we have our first audience! Everyone has been preparing all week.

The ushers learned the famous Ushers' Song last week, and this week we learned how to do our march down Eureka Street. Former intern and current Education and Community Programs Coordinator Deven Shaff was nice enough to come up from Denver and teach us the ropes. It was pretty fun, and we're all psyched to try it for the first time in our uniforms this afternoon!

On Monday, the city of Central threw the opera company their annual picnic. The company showed up to find free food, drinks, and a lovely trio of musicians playing for our entertainment. There was mingling, swinging on swings (see studio artist Megan Gillespie and apprentice artist Monica Boldt to the right) and general merriment. It was a lovely event.

Later in the week I got the opportunity to see the Orpheus in the Underworld photoshoot, which was super fun and colorful. Look how awesome those costumes are! I can't wait to see the whole ensemble in costume - it is going to be SWEET!

We hope to see you at a performance soon!

Lou Bunch Day

Lou Bunch Day 2010 dawned bright and early, with people lining the street to watch the dancers and entertainment before the parade began.

It was so exciting to see so many people in normally quiet Central City. It made for some awesome people watching, as everyone was dressed in their Lou Bunch best.

While Central City Opera wasn't able to participate with a bed race team this year, a bunch of interns and a friend or two wandered down to watch the famous races and see what it was all about.

Thanks to Shannon O'Connor Kenney for this lovely photo. From left, Nancy McDonald (Events), Krissy Zic (a lovely visitor), Nick Menge (Props), Jackie Grigg (Assistant House Manager), Me (Public Relations), & Mollie Albert (Stage Management PA).

We weren't disappointed - the bed race was crazy!

Everyone was dressed up and super excited to be racing.

In the end, Doc Holliday was triumphant!

What a crazy day!! Lou Bunch Day certainly was an experience!

Central City Round Up

Life is getting crazy busy here in Central City. There's so much going on that I'm not sure I can even blog about it all! In the past week Three Decembers started rehearsals, the ushers learned to sing the famous Usher Song, three board members were fitted for costumes for walk-on rolls in Orpheus in the Underworld, publicity photos were taken for Madama Butterfly, and John Moriarty shared with us the history of Central City Opera at the annual company meeting. Craziness!

I got the chance to attend both the design meeting and the first staging rehearsal for Three Decembers, and I am now totally hooked on that show. As principal artist Emily Pulley said in the design meeting, "It's not an opera, it's group therapy, really." And who doesn't like to see group therapy with music? I definitely do. Director Ken Cazan, who last directed West Side Story at Central City Opera in 2008, said "the theatre will never let you down," and I have a feeling this opera won't let us down either. I'm excited about it. [View Ken Cazan's Director's Notes on Three Decembers.]

Meanwhile, the ushers woke up early one morning to learn the Ushers' Song with Associate Conductor Andrew Altenbach. They don't look particularly happy about in this photo, but I swear we perked up once the real singing started. And just wait until we learn to march - it is going to be epic!

This morning we all attended the Central City Opera annual meeting, which was pretty awesome. John Moriarty told us the history of the Opera company, and I learned so much! I wasn't able to get any good pictures, but there's a historical reason for that, I swear. Apparently, the lighting in the opera house is super low because the paintings on the ceiling were meant to be seen in gas light. Mr. Moriarty told us that under modern bright lights, the colors look incredibly garish. Who knew!? And that was only one small fun fact we learned this morning.

Over the course of the week, three opera Board Members came in to get fitted for their costumes for the walk-on rolls they have in Orpheus in the Underworld. I stopped by George Ann Victor's fitting this morning. It was really fun to see how excited she was about her role and about her awesome costume. Look to the right. How cool is that! Just wait until you see her boots.

So life is starting to get busy busy busy in Central City. Trust me, you'll hear from me soon. Until then, scroll down and read the fun facts about Madama Butterfly Marc Shulgold put together.