Opera beefs-up its national profile and flexes its new National Opera Center of OPERA America, which officially bows on September 24.
The state-of-the-art headquarters for the 42-year-old non-profit org acts as the North American hub for all things opera and will host rehearsals, lessons, performances, auditions, seminars, workshops, concerts, meetings and more (!!), according to Dan Wakin for the NYTimes.
At a cost of $14 million ($6 million in construction, $6 million towards the operating endowment and $2 million in relocation costs, which moved the headquarters from Washington, D.C. to NYC in 2005), OPERA America also signed a 20-year lease for the dual-level space (floor plan here), conveniently located at 330 Seventh Avenue (at 29th street) in a 21-floor office building dating from 1928 (google street view above).
We'll crack a bottle of Bollinger La Grande Année as we watch a live stream on the OPERA America website of the official ribbon cutting ceremony, which starts at 10:30am on September 28.