Here you can find all of Opera Grand Rapids’ upcoming performances and events. New events are added all the time, so be sure to check back regularly!
The Elixir of Love
by Gaetano Donizetti
September 20 & 21, 2024
Forest Hills Fine Arts Center
Set in Spain’s Basque Country, The Elixir of Love tells the story of Nemorino, a peasant in love with the wealthy Amina. After Adina rejects Nemorino’s advances, Nemorino purchases a love potion from a traveling quack doctor named Dulcamara. Dulcamara sells Nemorino a common glass of red wine, which Dulcamara claims to be a potent love potion. Nemorino drinks the “potion,” and with his new-found confidence, Nemorino pursues his love for Adina in competition with the swaggering soldier, Belcore. Will Nemorino’s dreams of love come true, or is he destined to a life as a peasant?
Chorus Concert
November 7, 2024
Betty Van Andel Opera Center
We are pleased to be able to spotlight our wonderful chorus at this special concert.
As Michigan’s longest-running professional chorus, OGR’s Chorus empowers working artists by providing one of the only paid, professional, season-long, selective vocal music employment opportunities in the performing arts in the Grand Rapids area.
Eurydice
by Matthew Aucoin
January 31 & February 1, 2025
Betty Van Andel Opera Center
After producing his opera Second Nature in 2021 and bringing him to Grand Rapids to adjudicate the VanderLaan Prize in 2022, Matthew Aucoin invited Opera Grand Rapids to partner with the Boston Lyric Opera to co-commission a chamber version of his hit opera Eurydice. The first ever commission project in Opera Grand Rapids’ history, this stunning opera premiered in full-scale at
The Metropolitan Opera in 2021, after a world premiere at the LA Opera in 2020. Eurydice reconceives the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, telling the story from the heroine’s perspective. We follow Eurydice into the underworld, where she first passes through the River of Forgetfulness, then encounters her deceased father. By the time Orpheus comes to find her, Eurydice has become a different person and is not sure she wants to return to life.
Opera is Lit
March 13, 2025
GRAM
… literature, that is!
Curated by musicologist Camellia Adams, this informative and entertaining evening connects the music and stories of opera with its many roots in the written word.
VanderLaan Prize
March 29, 2025
Betty Van Andel Opera Center
One of the top collegiate vocal competitions in nation, the Vanderlaan Prize gives voice students a chance to compete for cash prizes. 10 finalists will be chosen to perform in the final-round concert, judged by world-class opera professionals.
Night with the Opera
May 15, 2025
GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Opera Grand Rapids will return to GLC at 20 Monroe for an amazing evening of opera, philanthropy and fun. Stay tuned throughout the season for event details and artist announcements.