Twenty Years Of Vero Beach Opera

Two decades have flashed by since a group of opera lovers, including founder Eloise Rodger, chartered the Vero Beach Opera Guild in April 1988. Their goal was to bring grand opera to our community – no easy feat – and over its first 15 years, a wide range of operatic and musical programs were presented. Then, in the summer of 2003, the Guild began to reorganize; in December 2005, Vero Beach Opera Inc. ushered in a new, professional operatic showcase for Indian River County.

In the seasons that followed, VBO’s close collaboration with Robert Swedberg and the Orlando Opera brought L’Elisir d’Amore, Le Nozze di Figaro and Tosca in Concert with Metropolitan Opera star Deborah Voigt. Voigt, who has a home in Indian River County, has been a driving force behind VBO, and has now joined with the organization to found the Deborah Voigt-Vero Beach Opera Foundation, under whose auspices she will mentor young opera singers.

Read the entire article in the April 2008 issue