Music
David DiChiera
1935–2018 · opera impresario, composer, musicologist
Founder of Michigan Opera Theatre (now Detroit Opera), who built Detroit a resident opera company in 1971 and a restored opera house in 1996.
- Born
McKeesport, Pennsylvania- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 83- Detroit years
- 1962–2018
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
DiChiera, the son of Italian immigrants, grew up in Los Angeles, studied at UCLA and researched eighteenth-century opera in Italy as a Fulbright scholar. In 1962 he came to Michigan to teach at the newly founded Oakland University in Rochester, where he later chaired the music department. In 1971 he founded Michigan Opera Theatre, Detroit's own professional company, and also became the first artistic director of the Music Hall Center downtown, where the company found its first home. Over the next decades he built an audience, brought in Black singers and community programs, and in 1988 the company bought the shuttered Grand Circus Theatre, the former Capitol. After a long restoration it reopened in April 1996 as the Detroit Opera House, with Joan Sutherland cutting the ribbon and Luciano Pavarotti singing at the gala. DiChiera's own opera, Cyrano, premiered there in 2007. He retired in 2017 and died at his Detroit home the next year.
Highlights
- Founded Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971 (renamed Detroit Opera in 2022)
- Founding artistic director of the Music Hall Center
- Led the restoration of the Detroit Opera House, reopened in 1996
- His opera Cyrano premiered at the Detroit Opera House in 2007
- Detroit News Michiganian of the Year 1979; NEA Opera Honors 2010
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1988–2017
Detroit Opera House
The 1922 Capitol Theatre that DiChiera's company bought in 1988 and reopened in 1996 as the Detroit Opera House; his opera Cyrano premiered here in 2007.
Founded · 1971–1990s
orsa Music Hall (Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts)
DiChiera became the Music Hall Center's founding artistic director in 1971, the same year he launched Michigan Opera Theatre.
Worked here · 1962–1971
Oakland University
He joined the new university's music faculty in 1962 and later chaired its music department.