The opera industry spends so much energy debating how to attract new audiences. Mostly, the conversation tends to orbit around the work itself: should we commission a new opera, present an updated staging, modernize the supertitles, or aim for a shorter run time? Yes. All worth doing at times, but these companies rarely spend time thinking about where they will stage their productions. Many of them have permanent, world-class venues! As a new company without a dedicated opera house, one question we were more attracted to was: does where you stage an opera change what opera is?

When we founded Park City Opera just two years ago, we spent months meeting with community leaders and arts organizations that we admired. After we had asked our questions (mostly about community building, filing for 501(c)(3) status, ticketing software of choice etc.), inevitably they would say something along the lines of, “Opera is the most challenging artform to produce; are you sure you want to do this?” We would smile and say, “Producing the opera? That’s the easy part.”

In a whirlwind 12 days between first rehearsal and closing three performances, our team of seven singers, fourteen instrumentalists, one conductor (myself!), and many more behind-the-scenes absolutely relished the process of mounting David Conte’s The Gift of the Magi in December 2025.