Cincinnati Opera's New (Old) Home

   Cincinnati Opera has moved.
   Not far, but it now has a home of its own. In October, the company packed up and moved its headquarters from the south wing to the north wing of Music Hall.
   The move -- to the new $3.3 million Corbett Opera Center in the north wing -- frees up the south wing for the Cincinnati Symphony and May Festival, with whom it has shared scattered, cramped quarters since moving to Music Hall from the Cincinnati Zoo in 1972.
   Named for Cincinnati arts patron Patricia Corbett, the Corbett Opera Center - a four-story reconstruction and renovation of mostly under-utilized space - will be dedicated by Mayor Charlie Luken in a ceremony for major donors and community leaders at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Music Hall.
   Echoing chief architect James Stapleton’s characterization of the center as a "ship within a bottle," Luken will break a bottle of champagne over one of the "very thick, very old brick walls" in the fourth-floor "President’s Garret," said opera public relations director Julie Maslov.
   The opera will hold a public open house at the center next summer coincident with its 2005 summer festival, opening June 16 at Music Hall with Puccini’s "La Boheme."
   Measuring 14,000 square feet, the COC will be the locus of all of the opera’s activities, from ticket sales to rehearsal space. "For the first time, we have a box office of our own at street level," said Maslov.
   The new center also confirms the opera’s commitment to the 127-year-old landmark and to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.
   Five years in the making, the project was sparked by a $1.5 million lead gift from the Corbett Foundation, announced in February, 2002 after two years of planning. Construction began in December, 2003 and was completed "on time and on budget," Maslov said. Leadership gifts also came from Harry and Linda Fath ($1 million), the City of Cincinnati ($650,000), The Procter & Gamble Fund ($600,000), the L. & L. Nippert Charitable Foundation ($500,000) and Mr. and Mrs. Larry A. Sheakley ($500,000).
   Design and construction were led by locally-based FRCH Design Worldwide and Frank Messer & Sons Construction...
   Space within the center is allocated as follows:

• First floor. Box office, reception area and conference room.

• Second floor. Administration, development and finance department offices

• Third floor. Artistic, education, marketing and production offices

• Fourth floor. The President’s Garrett (multi-purpose performance and meeting space), kitchen and production work room