I conceived of the idea to form a new light opera company when I learned about the amazing history of Ted and Deena Puffer and Nevada Opera, which, from 1968-2013, produced masterpieces of grand opera and light opera in Reno. A handful of talented colleagues who had performed with Nevada Opera, as well as some younger singers with opera training, expressed to me a desire to perform these types of works again. We collectively mourned the fact that there was no longer a performance company in Northern Nevada producing fully-realized productions of light opera, operetta, or classic mid-century Broadway.

Reno deserves a professional opera company that can produce smaller light operas and operettas such as those of Gilbert and Sullivan and Victor Herbert. However, I equally envision the representation and works of American theatre composers like Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, and modern works from Europe and America that honor the musical and theatrical traditions of the past.

I imagine a company “rising from the ashes” of Nevada Opera’s glorious and successful past to emerge anew...like a Firebird!