In 1976, Artistic Director Philip Bayles and over 100 volunteer musicians, singers, stagehands and opera fans combined their efforts to bring opera to Eugene, Oregon. The first production (Carmen) played to a “full house” of 600 attendees in a local high school auditorium. A local newspaper reporter remarked, “It’s a first effort to be proud of, for it has proven that Eugene is loaded with high-quality musicians and opera-hungry concert goers.”
Six years later, in 1982, EUGENE OPERA became a resident company in the newly opened Hult Center for the Performing Arts. It endured its share of hard times, however, during the early-1990s, when its debt exceeded $340,000. Sound business practices and increased community support eliminated the debt within five years.
It has since been profiled nationally on National Public Radio and in Opera News and featured a cameo appearance by humorist Dave Barry in its 1995 production of Gianni Schicchi.
Read more about The Eugene Opera.
