National Opera Center Opens on Seventh Avenue

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National Opera Center

A visitor to the new National Opera Center looks at the Production Exhibit Gallery, a wall of photographs of productions by member companies. Photo: Gregory Moomjy.

The National Opera Center had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Sept. 28. The new center, located at Seventh Avenue and 29th Street, provides space for talent scouts to audition new singers, for member companies to hold production meetings, and for readings of new operas. Opera America, an organization whose members include the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Dallas Opera, is renting the center.

The space also includes a practice and recital hall, a recording studio where singers can make audition tapes, conference rooms, and a library of CDs and scores.  Among the special guests who performed at the ceremony was soprano Elizabeth Futral, who said she was “thrilled” that the center exists. Although she no longer auditions, she remembers practicing in less “acoustically gracious” spaces.