Golden Gate Opera

About Golden Gate Opera

In 1996, with little more than a vision, a handful of passionate, dedicated professional Bay Area opera singers and directors founded Golden Gate Opera (GGO) as a not-for-profit opera company. Its purpose was to put Marin County on the “Opera map” at the same high level as Opera America. We wanted to transform lives by making opera accessible – enriching the community through the beauty and majesty of full-scale operatic performances.

Golden Gate Opera started out small, performing in the 300-seat California Palace of the Legion of Honor’s Florence Gould Theatre in San Francisco from 1997-2004. In 2005, GGO launched the first opera production Marin County had seen in 20 years – debuting in the 2,000-seat Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium – with a full orchestra in the pit. The curtain went up, and the audience gasped in amazement.

Since that time, Golden Gate Opera has thrilled audiences with its theater performances of Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Hansel & Gretel, The Medium, The Telephone, Der Apotheker, Die Walküre, Un ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, “Opera’s Greatest Hits”, Opera Café and more. It has wowed patrons with Galas and delighted them with intimate Aria Parties, where Golden Gate Opera singers perform up close and personal in the comfortable setting of private homes. And it has gone into the community to share the joys of opera in one-of-a-kind performances designed especially for children.

Since 1997, Golden Gate Opera has reached over 100,000 children in Marin County and Bay Area schools with its in-school, in-theater, and in-classroom programs of unique one-act interactive operas. Winner of the 2016 NEA ARTWORKS award, Golden Gate Opera premiered LINCOLN-The African American Connection by Mill Valley’s Cepelak and Rose. In 2016, Golden Gate Opera launched, The Boy Who Grew Too Fast, written by two-time Pulitzer-prize winner Gian Carlo Menotti, an interactive anti-bullying opera program for children.

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