CALGARY – The Calgary Opera is on the moo-ve to a brand new home: Stampede Park. The Opera will be part of the Calgary Stampede’s new Youth Campus, located north of the Saddledome.
Construction on the new space is slated to begin at the end of 2015, and will hopefully be completed in 2018.
The announcement came Tuesday with a performance by four Young Canadians and opera singer Thomas Glenn at Stampede Park.
The Stampede said in a statement it will provide land for the Calgary Opera to build a 50,000 square foot Opera Centre, “which will include public space, a 300-seat rehearsal and performance space, classrooms, practice halls, administrative offices and much more.”
“It’s wonderful they’re reaching out to the community and looking for different partners,” said Calgary Opera CEO Bob McPhee. “It’s not just the Stampede for a couple of weeks in the summer. There are year-round things.”
Seventy per cent of the new Opera Centre will be used as shared space for more than 160 community organizations, and will provide access to a “wide variety of arts disciplines.”
“Developing youth through our programs has always been a large part of the Calgary Stampede,” said Bob Thompson, president and chairman of the board of the Calgary Stampede. “This new partnership will create synergies between youth and professional artists, providing them with a wide spectrum of resources to further their development.”
With files from Gil Tucker
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