Opera Roanoke is professional opera company based in Roanoke, Virginia. The institution presents fully staged productions and a variety of smaller-scale presentations each year. The company is resident in the Shaftman Performance Hall in Roanoke's Jefferson Center.
The company was founded in 1976 as the Southwest Virginia Opera Society.[1] Its inaugural production, Menotti's The Consul, was mounted in May 1977.[1] Performances of The Marriage of Figaro and Die Fledermaus constituted the 1978-1979 season.[2] [3] The group became a professional company in 1989, and changed its name to Opera Roanoke in 1991.[4] [5] It and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra moved their headquarters to the newly-remodeled Jefferson Center in 1992.[6]
In 2006, the company celebrated its 30th Season with main stage productions of La Boheme and Macbeth.[7] The institution moved its headquarters in 2007, joining the Downtown Music Lab as the first tenants of the renovated Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development.[8] Three years later, however, the headquarters were moved again, this time to the downtown Roanoke arts and culture hub Center in the Square.[8]