Opera Grand Rapids Tickets | Schedule for 2024/2025 Events

Opera Grand Rapids

Opera Grand Rapids, an opera company, makes West Michigan a better place to live by making this art form more creative and better.

Opera Grand Rapids was started in 1967 when a few opera-loving Grand Rapids had a dream. Today, they are the Michigan opera company that has been around the longest. Opera Grand Rapids works with some of the most talented artists, conductors, stage directors, set designers, choreographers, costume designers, and others worldwide. As well as the Opera Grand Rapids Chorus,  the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, and the Opera Grand Rapids Children's Chorus are well known for their productions.

Opera's 50th Anniversary

June 1967: A time of famous news stories. The war in Vietnam cast a dark cloud over the American mind. The Voting Rights Act had just been signed into law. The first presidential election, where everyone could vote, was a big deal. America was determined to get to the moon, but our first attempt ended in disaster. This was a time of change and hope, making it an excellent time for opera.

In times like these, we look to the arts to lift us, make us feel alive, and change us. We rely on people patiently practicing their crafts out of sight to pull us into the theater and remind us of what our souls are capable of. To feel the world's chaos fade away as a pleasant chill rises the spine beneath a blooming area.

Opera Grand Rapids was started by people who knew that passion is best when shared with others. Still, creating a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for an audience with high standards was a risky idea.

To create something truly remarkable, they would need to collaborate with the city's top musicians. They must show that risk and persistence can break through problems and win the day. This is a lesson that Figaro himself would have liked to learn.

On that steamy June evening, the artists' anxieties were all over the place. Peering out at the bustling house while the noise and pressure within steadily increase. The top people in Grand Rapids' high society dressed up and were ready to take their places. The crowd was excited and talking, and fans were flapping among the sea of faces.