Here you can find information on some of Opera Grand Rapids’ past productions.
Second Nature
by Matthew Aucoin
April 30 & May 2, 2021
The Pavilion at Millennium Park
Second Nature imagines our planet a hundred years from now. Climate change has wreaked havoc worldwide, and humans have had to seal themselves in an artificial habitat to escape. But two children’s curiosity leads them back out into nature in hopes of finding a world that is worth saving.
Penny
by Douglas Pew
March 19-April 2, 2021
Virtual Performance
Penny is a NEW opera about the power of music. In the course of this one-hour opera, we see the leading character Penny Rutherford, an autistic woman, literally and figuratively find her voice. As Penny learns to express herself through singing, she transforms before our eyes.
Così fan tutte
by W.A. Mozart
October 23 & 25, 2020
EGRHS Performing Arts Center
In Mozart’s comedy Così fan tutte or The School for Lovers, Ferrando and Guglielmo boast to their friend, the cynical bachelor Don Alfonso, that their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, are unreproachable in their steadfastness and virtue. What happens next is a comedic masterpiece of disguises and deception gone wrong as Alfonso and the clever maid Despina take the two couples to the School for Lovers.
Scalia Ginsburg
by Derrick Wang
March 14, 2020 | 7:30 PM
& March 15, 2020 | 2:00 PM
Betty Van Andel Opera Center
This comic opera in one act is inspired by the opinions and unlikely friendship of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Opera Grand Rapids will be one of the first opera companies in the world to produce this opera.
The Mikado
by Gilbert & Sullivan
November 1 & 2, 2019
St. Cecilia Music Center
G&S’s beloved satire on Imperial British politics and institutions comes to life on the intimate stage of St. Cecilia Music Center. The poor wandering minstrel Nanki-Poo is in love with the lovely Yum-Yum, the ward of the Lord High Executioner, who has designs on her himself. The town swirls with satirical chaos when the Emperor (The Mikado) reveals that if no one is executed in the town, it will be reduced in stature to a village. Heads will comically roll in this Topsy-Turvey world.
La Traviata
by Giuseppe Verdi
June 14 & 15, 2019
St. Cecilia Music Center
The heartbreaking true story of Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis became the classic novella that inspired the films Camille, Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge. The great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi retells her story in one of the greatest operas of all time.
The Magic Flute
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
October 26 & 27, 2018
DeVos Performance Hall
Performed in English, this magical allegorical tale of equality between all men and women has enchanted audiences since its premiere more than two hundred years ago. OGR’s production stars acclaimed artists John Viscardi as the comic Papageno and Jana McIntyre as the star-blazing Queen of the Night.