Living in Denver, I make a point of going to the Central City Opera (CCO) every year. The opera house was built in 1878 at the height of the local gold rush. It’s intimate and beautiful. The town is a funky place combining an artist community with some soulless casinos, but the CCO owns over 20 Victorian-era properties there, where apprentice singers learn, live, and perform during the summer. I love the program and am supportive of the great work they do. And, as I tell my local friends who are not opera buffs, even if you don’t like the opera, the drive into the mountains for a summer matinee is a treat in itself.
I really wanted to like this one. It was the perfect combination of opera and venue. They were performing The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore. It actually premiered at the CCO 70 years ago. Set in another Colorado mining town (Leadville), it’s based on the true story of Baby Doe Tabor, who married a silver mine owner in 1883. The story is tragic, with the characters written as flawed but sympathetic people. Soprano Virginia Mims was spectacular as the title character (in a role debut no less!), playing her with just the right amount of innocence and hardened mine-town realism.
The issue was the costumes. I get that the CCO has a small budget compared to other companies, but they did something that really grinds my gears: putting the saloon girls in ill-fitting, brightly colored corsets worn on the outside. You might think that this is a highly specific thing to be irritated about, and you would be correct. However, I have fallen into many research rabbit holes during my lifetime, and historical clothing (corsetry in particular) is one I’ve gone very deep down. There was no scenario where a corset would have been worn on the outside, even for saloon girls. There are so many ways costume designer Lynly Saunders could have signified the different social classes of the women in the opera without going for rampant historical inaccuracy. I’ve even seen her do great work before, as in Treemonisha at the Washington National Opera.
Is this a ridiculous reason to not like a performance? Yes, but this blog is essentially nothing but my highly specific feelings about various operas.
Opera: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Composer: Douglas Moore
Venue: Central City Opera
Date: July 12, 2026
Link: https://centralcityopera.org/project/the-ballad-of-baby-doe-2026/
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