© 2022 Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit
Murder Mystery Dinner & Kids’ New Year's Eve Pajama Party round out holiday lineup
This holiday season, celebrate with music, plays, movies, and more in the unique atmosphere of historic opera houses! With something for everyone, the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit offers fun and memorable holiday events, including a week-long Holiday Concert Series at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, Colo. The series features a “Tease the Season” burlesque, five live concerts from national and regional favorites, and a rollicking New Year's Eve dance party.
At the Wright Opera House in Ouray, you can enjoy creative events like seasonal movies and plays, a family-friendly Yule celebration, a “Murder at the Christmas Feast” murder mystery dinner, and a New Year’s Eve pajama party.
If you’re on the Front Range, be sure to check out a holiday kids’ musical presented in Denver by Central City Opera.
Don’t miss your chance to create unforgettable holiday memories surrounded by the charm and history of Colorado’s most iconic venues. Buy your tickets and make your travel plans now for these great events!
Come join us for the holidays!
Join us this fall as the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit revives a Silver Rush tradition in the Colorado arts. Partner Central City Opera (CCO) will tour the Circuit and present special programs at multiple opera houses. This is CCO’s first tour since 2019.
The tour will bring the first opera in recent memory to the Wright Opera House in Ouray:
Opera-on-the-Go offers opera and musical theatre favorites, with songs about nature, songs about liberty, songs by women composers, and more. A Q&A session with the singers and pianist follows this 40-minute concert. Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, $10 for students.
The family program Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World, designed for elementary school students, shares the true story of a Mexican girl named Mariana. She asks the famous painter Frida Kahlo to paint her portrait and is inspired to live bravely and boldly, just like Frida. CCO’s bilingual (Spanish/English) teaching artists will lead a question-and-answer session and activities after the show. Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. $15 for adults, $5 for students, includes free popcorn and lemonade.
Image by Amanda Tipton Photography | FB- Amanda Tipton-Photographer | IG - @amandatiptonphotography
The Tabor Opera House in Leadville will host CHIAROSCURO: Light in Darkness, an opera designed to address mental health and suicide prevention among adolescents, on for Lake County High School students. This innovative opera uses operatic stories to explore issues such as bullying, trauma, and social dynamics, offering a new approach to addressing mental health concerns through storytelling and music. Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, for local students.
The Wheeler Opera House in Aspen will present Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World in schools throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, in an innovative partnership and outreach effort while the Wheeler’s main stage is closed for replacement of the theatrical rigging. Oct. 22-24, for local students.
Image by Amanda Tipton Photography | FB- Amanda Tipton-Photographer | IG - @amandatiptonphotography
These first-of-their-kind modern-day performances continue the legacy of Colorado’s Silver Circuit, which brought traveling artists to opera houses in mountain communities from 1890 to 1944. The Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit, formed in 2021, seeks to preserve this tradition while addressing contemporary social issues through the arts.
“CCO developed its touring program to enhance existing academic curriculum and to promote inclusive lifelong learning,” said Meg Osaki Graves, MDA, CDI, the senior director of Education & Community Engagement at Central City Opera. “We are excited to strengthen our collaboration with our Circuit partners by sharing these shows to audiences throughout the state.”
Much of the opera houses’ programming centers on live music of all kinds, theater, comedy, and dance, and the Frida Kahlo programming is designed especially for families.
“Circuit partners are dedicated to welcoming everyone into these historic spaces,” said Kate Jones, programming director of the Wright Opera House. “The Frida Kahlo show gives us an additional option to share the arts and Colorado history with young audiences in a show with a bilingual component.”
"We’re excited to partner once again with Roaring Fork Valley Schools, this time introducing students to a brand-new opera experience designed specifically for young audiences,” said Malia Machado, programs and outreach coordinator for the Wheeler Opera House. “While we’ve collaborated on outreach in the past, this unique opportunity offers an exciting new avenue. We look forward to building lasting connections with schools and students, as well as sharing many memorable performances and educational experiences together in the future.”
Please join us for these programs and much more. Check our calendar for a full list of upcoming events on the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit.
To see the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit up close, tour the buildings! Admire the architecture. Marvel at the decorative details. Hear the stories of luminaries who have crossed the famous stages.
You’ll also learn what the opera houses have meant to locals in these mountain communities for more than a century. Take a tour!
The Gilpin Historical Society offers tours of Central City Opera House, as well as several other historic buildings with intriguing stories, throughout the year. In the Central City Opera House, peer up at the frescoed ceiling, and check out the perfect acoustics. See who has visited before you by reading the wooden seat backs, carved with names like Buffalo Bill, Beverly Sills, and Lillian Gish.
The tour also includes the infamous Face on the Barroom Floor, mentioned in a Three Stooges movie, at the Teller House hotel. Check out Thomas House, an 1867 Greek Revival-style frame house reportedly built around the entrance to a mine. Admire the stained-glass windows and 1898 Steere pipe organ at St. James Methodist Church, dedicated in 1872 and the state’s oldest operating Protestant church. See antique printing equipment at The Weekly Register-Call, the oldest continuously printed newspaper in Colorado. 📷: Amanda Tipton Photography
At the Sheridan Opera House, take a good look at the restored decorative stenciling in the theater. Hear the stories of the “crown jewel of Telluride.” Take the Telluride Historical Museum walking tour, or contact the Sheridan Opera House for a tour appointment.
Take a Tabor Opera House tour in English or Spanish, from late spring through early fall. See pieces from the finest collection of historic stage scenery in North America, discovered in the Tabor’s attic in 2020 and dating to 1888. Sit in the original red velvet Andrews opera chairs. See the stage where John Philip Sousa and Oscar Wilde appeared and magician Harry Houdini disappeared. 📷: Craig Hensel
Take a free guided tour offered by Aspen Historical Society, in partnership with the City of Aspen. Get an insider’s look at the iconic Wheeler Opera House, the center of Aspen’s arts and cultural scene since it was built in 1889. Tours are offered seasonally on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. Check the Wheeler Opera House calendar (search "tours") for more information. 📷: Jordan Curet
Featuring a famous Mesker iron façade and an original stage curtain, the Wright Opera House offers historical treasures. Tours are available on request. Please email the Wright Opera House or stop in to request a tour. 📷: Faren Wilbur
Colorado’s mountains are full of fresh snowfall, and the Colorado Opera Houses Circuit invites visitors to enjoy the snows and shows. From festivals to live music, dance, and more, opera houses welcome winter-lovers to events that warm body and soul.
Here are eight ways to enjoy the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit this winter.
Photo: Aspen Chamber Resort Association
There’s plenty of fun to be had at our winter festivals—a comedy fest, wine tasting, gay ski week, and horses and cowboys pulling skiers over jumps! See our calendar for details.
Photo: Sarah Schwab Photography
From guitar to rock to Americana, and from opera to Black Opry Revue, you’ll find plenty to love in the opera houses’ winter lineups. Learn more on our calendar.
Sheridan Opera House
Wheeler Opera House
Photo: Aspen Chamber Resort Association
Glide down abundant fresh snow at Aspen and Telluride! You’ll find excellent conditions for skiing and riding at these world-class resorts.
Photo: DanceAspen / Wheeler Opera House
Whether you like contemporary dance or burlesque, or both, Colorado’s opera houses have you covered. Check our calendar.
Warm up this winter in pools with mountain views! Find your bliss at hot springs throughout the Ouray / Telluride area.
Photo: Faren Wilbur
Who did it? Find out at this murder mystery series at the Wright Opera House. See details on our calendar.
Colorado offers many fun ways to experience winter wonderland. Enjoy cross-country skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, at all three Circuit mountain towns. Go ice climbing at Ouray Ice Park, or hire an ice climbing guide in Telluride. Try sleigh rides or fat bike rides in Aspen, and much more.
See the latest styles at an AIDS fashion show fundraiser, hear of explorers’ adventures, and laugh at a well-known comedian’s antics. Find it all on our calendar.
Learn more about the opera houses, and plan your trip today!
Looking for a cool summer trip near Colorado’s Front Range? The new Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit can help! Start your trip in Central City, just 40 miles west of Denver.
📷: Amanda Tipton Photography
Take in the Central City Opera’s Summer Festival, June 29 - August 4, 2024! This annual festival is full of events, from feature performances to special meals to talks and short works. Choose from
Whether you pick an evening performance or a family matinee, spend the rest of the day exploring historic Central City!
📷: Amanda Tipton Photography
Tour the opera house itself! Read the names of Colorado pioneers and opera stars and supporters carved onto the opera house seats. History buffs will also love to tour the Teller House Hotel with a face painted on its barroom floor, a house built around a mine entrance, a beautiful 1872 church, and a print shop full of antique printing equipment. The Gilpin Historical Society leads these intriguing tours daily.
Feeling lucky? Head to Central City's casinos. Or simply stroll Central City's historic downtown, with galleries, shops, and delicious restaurants. For a unique experience, play disc golf in a ghost town.
Continue the history theme with a night in a historic bed and breakfast. Or book a hotel with amazing views. Get a good night’s sleep in Central City lodging.
The next morning, travel to Leadville, about 80 miles away. While the last part of the drive is along the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway, the whole trip offers jaw-dropping views.
📷: Craig Hensel Photography
Visit the Tabor Opera House, built in 1879 in just 100 days. Now undergoing a historic rehabilitation, the building is open for tours in English from Thursdays through Sundays. Spanish-language tours take place on Saturdays. Peer at pieces of historic stage scenery; North America’s finest collection was found hidden in the Tabor’s attic in 2019.
Check for the Tabor's summer season performances, to be announced soon!
📷: @hehuang81 / Instagram
Round out your day by discovering your own treasures in this genuine and historic mountain town. Roam one of Leadville’s many museums—the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, Temple Israel frontier synagogue, the House with the Eye, and more.
Enjoy fresh mountain air by walking or biking the Mineral Belt Trail, a 12-mile paved loop around Leadville. Marvel at historic mining structures and close-up views of Colorado’s two highest peaks. For an outside tour, visit the Matchless Mine. There, you can peer into a mining shaft and hear the famous riches-to-rags story of Baby Doe Tabor, told at the cabin where she lived out her life. Or drive to the historic village of Twin Lakes, on the shores of two large glacial lakes.
Choose from many great places to eat and places to stay in this Victorian town.
📷: @cheedo_the_fragile / Instagram
For your return trip, more mountains, trails, and small towns await.
Visit Colorado.com for more ideas on things to see and do!
📷: Amanda Tipton Photography (Top featured photo)
Celebrate the holidays with live entertainment in festive settings along the Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit! This winter, four mountain towns offer holiday concerts and celebrations.
See live music in intimate historic settings. Holiday concerts offer a wide range of music styles—soul and jazz, Motown and urban-Latino, folk and Appalachian music, and more. Catch comedy, dance, and kids’ theater. Join us for your favorite holiday movies and ski films and a Native American film festival. Take opera house tours, sleuth your way through a murder mystery, and much more.
The Circuit connects
📷: Sarah Schwab Photography
After a great day skiing or riding Telluride’s premier slopes, warm up at the Sheridan Opera House. Be sure to catch the star-studded Holiday Concert Series:
Or have dinner with Jewel, to raise funds for Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation and the Sheridan Arts Foundation (Wed., Dec. 27, 6:30 p.m.).
Don’t miss these fun December events:
Check the Sheridan's upcoming events for details.
📷: An Appalachian Christmas, Courtesy Wheeler Opera House
Pair world-class Aspen skiing with world-class cultural events. Make plans to be at the Wheeler Opera House as it hosts celebrations of Native American voices and traditions:
Come back for holiday music, movie, and dance:
You’ll also want to catch these great December shows:
See the Wheeler's upcoming events for more details.
Soak in Ouray’s unmatched hot springs, then enjoy these holiday-themed events at the Wright Opera House:
Plus enjoy stellar paintings and music:
Find details at the Wright's upcoming events.
📷: Eric Chinn
In Central City, visit the casinos and do your holiday shopping in the historic downtown. Then tour the Central City Opera House:
For a holiday event produced by the Central City Opera company:
Learn more about the opera houses, and plan your trip today!
This blog was made possible through a grant from Visit Colorado.
