david dichiera dies

[lennygoran]

Hadn't heard of him or his opera cyrano-enjoyed the alfano alot. Len

DiChiera, the founder of Michigan Opera Theater, a regional company that attracted world-class talent and became a bastion of culture and a booster of revitalization in a downtown Detroit that many had abandoned, died on Tuesday at his home in that city. He was 83.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Erica Hobbs, a Michigan Opera spokeswoman.

Dr. DiChiera led the company from its establishment in 1971 to 2014 and drove the effort to buy and renovate a grand but dilapidated movie theater that became the Detroit Opera House, the company’s home.

He was also a composer whose opera “Cyrano,” based on Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” had its premiere at the house in 2007. (It has since been performed by Opera Philadelphia, Florida Grand Opera in Miami and Opera Carolina in Charlotte, N.C.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/obit ... -dead.html