Virginia Opera at the Carpenter Theatre

Under the artistic leadership of Maestro Peter Mark, the company is known and respected nationwide for the identification and presentation of the finest young artists, for the musical and dramatic integrity of its productions, and for the ingenuity and variety of its education and outreach programs. The company has a working budget of approximately $4.8 million with 32 mainstage performances in three markets reaching nearly 50,000 attendees, and a donor base exceeding 3,000 contributors.

In March of 1994, by unanimous vote of the Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Opera was named The Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia in recognition of the organization's contribution to the Commonwealth, and to the world of opera.

Organized in 1974 by founding president Edythe C. Harrison, Virginia Opera was launched with two productions in the Norfolk Center Theater, and has since expanded to four productions including 16 performances at the Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, eight at the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond's Center Stage in Richmond, and eight at George Mason University's Center for the Arts in Fairfax. Virginia Opera's history in Richmond began in 1977 with the encouragement of then-Governor Mills Godwin and Mrs. T. Fleetwood (Anna) Garner, under whose leadership The Richmond Friends of Opera was formed to present Virginia Opera productions annually in Richmond.

By 1983, the Richmond and Central Virginia Board of Virginia Opera was formed and a Richmond office was opened. In November 1992, the company presented its first mainstage performance at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax. This development was hailed as "one of the major local operatic events of the year" by The Washington Post; and deemed "a special day in music history for the Washington, D.C. area," by Opera News.

Virginia Opera is one of the finest regional opera companies in the nation and is the only company to perform regularly in three separate main stage venues. In addition, Virginia Opera reaches more than 200,000 students and community members each year through its impressive variety of innovative Education and Community Outreach Programs.