Central City Opera Trip Update

This weekend the Museum of Western Colorado took a trip high in the mountains to Central City for a weekend of history, scenery, and - of course - opera. After lunch on Saturday we went up to the Coeur d’Alene mine where we learned about the “Richest Square Mile on Earth” and had simply breath-taking views of the valley. Our next stop was the Gilpin County Museum. Housed in an old school house, the history museum is a personal favorite of mine and we were lucky enough to see an exhibit on death and dying in the Victorian era. Saturday night the group explored the shops and maybe even a casino or two and a couple were lucky enough to get tickets to that night’s performance of Handel’s Rinaldo.

Early the next morning we took a tour of the Central City Cemetery. It is perhaps the most beautiful and most interesting cemetery in Colorado and wild flowers, grasses, and aspens have taken over all the areas between markers. We even had rubbing supplies and got some great copies of some unique headstones. Later in the morning we went to the Teller House which was the premier hotel in Central City at one time and played host to famous names like “Baby Doe” Tabor and President Grant.

The highlight of the trip was the Central City Opera performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The opera was simply outstanding in every way! A great and tragic story, wonderful talent, and some of the best opera music composed. Add on top of that the setting in the 1878 Opera House and you can see what a wonderful afternoon it was.

We cannot thank or acknowledge enough the generosity and courtesy of the Gilpin Historical Society and the Central City Opera Association for making this trip possible. Look for another visit to Central City next year!