Behind the Curtain: Silver Linings

By Greg Carpenter

Let’s not kid ourselves. It has been one tough year!

We worked our way through cancellations and postponements. We had plans for outdoor performances and fall video projects thwarted by rigorous and necessary health and safety measures.

We are social creatures by nature, and not gathering regularly with friends, family, patrons, and colleagues has kept us cooped up in our home offices, often feeling isolated and alone. While we have binge watched countless Netflix and Amazon Prime series, caught the occasional Met live stream, and started making a dent in the stack of New Yorker magazines we usually don’t have time to read, nothing can replace gathering at the opera house for a great performance, or meeting up with friends for a long, relaxing meal.

But enough of the negative! I always try to find the silver lining in challenging situations, and this is the time of year when we can count our blessing and look forward to what the future holds.

Throughout the past twelve months we have witnessed the incredible generosity of you, our patrons, who helped us achieve a balanced budget at the end of our fiscal year on June 30. This provided a runway for the staff to pool our creative energies and reimagine a season of musical activities to replace our season of live performances. Opera Colorado Amplified is the result of months of planning and preparation. We cannot wait to begin recording our digital programs in January and rehearsing our outdoor series later in the spring. It is exciting and different and will help pave the way for a season of grand opera back at the Ellie, come fall of 2021. We’ll be announcing details for our digital programming in early January. Then stay tuned for more information about our outdoor series later this winter!

Most recently, our cyber week promotion was one of our most successful in recent years and our Colorado Gives Day fundraising brought in 38% more dollars from 176 individuals than the previous year. Many gifts came from brand new donors!

As we are turn our attention to the fall of 2021, we are preparing a season of grand opera that includes the postponed productions of Tosca, The Shining, and Carmen. It is going to feel great being back in our performance home with our family of patrons, celebrating the resilience of Opera Colorado.

On behalf of everyone at Opera Colorado, we hope you have had an enjoyable holiday and that your new year is filled with peace, joy, good health, and the return of live opera!

Thank you for our generosity,

Greg Carpenter

General & Artistic Director