Comstock Chronicle Weekly Update 6.27.2025
An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. - Maria Callas
Our friend Ford over at For the Song has been working hard to build a thriving music scene here on the Comstock, and he’s doing a fine job. I like his community-based approach, the involvement of local businesses and artists, and the underlying realization that Piper’s Opera House is an amazing venue that needs to be filled with music and people.
Big ideas that shake up the Way Things Are sometimes take a minute to catch on. That may be the case here. You see, we’re simply used to Piper’s Opera House sitting empty most of the time. It shouldn’t be that way, it doesn’t have to be that way, and it wasn’t always that way.
Let’s start from the beginning. Opera itself was fairly rare in the Old West, and little, if any, was performed at Piper’s. Theaters in the late 1800s were rowdy establishments, known for box rustling and trouble. Opera houses were so named to set them apart. They were performance venues, event centers, and places where things happened that were a cut above the norm.
All of which is to clarify that Ford isn’t bringing opera to town, at least not yet. The performance this Saturday by Taylor Hunnicutt promises country, Southern rock, and soul. Piper’s was built in the 1880s and, through the remainder of the 1800s, was a thriving cultural center, featuring acts from across the US and Europe. Adolph Sutro famously delivered his lecture here to a packed house after the Yellow Jacket Mine tragedy. What Ford and his merry band of cohorts are attempting today is nothing less than bringing our historic opera house back to its heyday.
As the quote says, that work begins long before the curtain goes up and continues after it goes down. Cheers to these visionaries, and we wish them success! As the sun rises over the Cabin in the Sky, I am reminded that I need to buy my tickets for this weekend’s show, and I suggest you do the same! Signing off, AG
