About VHO

Praised for "breaking new ground and pushing the envelope", and called "the future of the field" by The Washington Post, Victory Hall Opera is now in its 10th year of bringing cutting-edge, thrilling chamber opera to Charlottesville, Virginia. VHO presents a new model for what an opera company can be: not an institution, but a Troupe: of exceptional, high-caliber singers, advancing the art form together. 

In our first 9 years, we have presented 31 original productions, including 6 World Premiere commissions, and several Virginia and U.S. Premieres. VHO is a magnet for new audiences: our 2023 Season drew live audiences from 18 different States, 45% of which self-reported as non-regular-operagoers.

VHO has won The Music Academy of the West's prestigious national Alumni Enterprise Award three times, recognizing projects in the arts that are "revolutionary, daring, inspiring", and has won multiple significant grants from The Jefferson Trust, New Music USA, the NEA, and the UVA Directors of DEI in recognition of our innovative and inclusive work.

Each performance is collaboratively developed by the artists in our Troupe, and must meet our three-fold artistic test: it must be "disarming, exquisite, sincere".

Under the leadership of soprano & director Miriam Gordon-Stewart, VHO has developed and employs its own generative, collaborative staging methodology, entitled “Motif”, that uses performers’ improvisational character to form material that becomes the basis of movement and choreographic sequences. Motif allows us to create productions that look and feel like no other - that are personal, relevant, and vivid, and invite and engage new audiences. Our productions also feature our innovative, award-winning modular set design, the “READY.SET”. Add some of the best singing in the world, experienced up-close in intimate venues, and you have a recipe for an extraordinary experience. 

 More questions? Check out our FAQs page!

…and: The Story Behind the Story

We were having our careers in opera, "living the dream".  And a dream it was: wearing the big costumes, singing with the big orchestras, feeling the rush.  But we had noticed that things weren't going so well for the industry at large: audiences were dwindling, fees for singers being slashed. And too often we were asked to do old-fashioned productions in rented costumes that just didn't seem relevant to our time.

We sang in Germany, at the Sydney Opera House, in Paris, at The Met. These places tried to find their own solutions, hiring famous directors, building multi-million-dollar sets.  But still, audience numbers kept diminishing, and opera was seen as elitist by too many.

No one asked the singers. We would gather in Green Rooms, always debating, full of ideas, anger, passion.  We wanted opera to be better. And we knew the only people to save it would be the ones who know it and love it best, the singers. Because without singers, there is no opera.

We believed in our art form, that we had dedicated our lives to.  We had trained for decades for a reason: it is a calling. And we knew its power to inspire, to heal, to elevate, at its best. 

Three of us met in Berlin one cold night and decided to do something about it. Let's start a different kind of opera company, we said. One led by singers, one that unleashes their knowledge and potential. One that speaks to our time, to all of our stories, in our diversity. One that can take risks because the budgets are kept small, while the quality of what's happening on stage stays high.

Let's stop blaming the dwindling audiences, we said, and challenge ourselves to do better—to make opera better. So we packed our bags and set up camp in Charlottesville, VA, the perfect place to launch our experiment.

And 10 years later, the opera revolution continues, right here in Charlottesville. Will you join us?