Utah Opera

In 1996, Utah Opera featured the world premiere of Dreamkeepers. In 2007, Utah Opera co-commissioned Michael Korie and Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath in 2007. The Opera's western state's premiere took place in Utah's own Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre.

In the 2017–2018 40th anniversary season, Utah Opera created a new production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's opera Moby-Dick, which premiered in 2010 at Dallas Opera.

At the end of the 2018–2019 season, Utah Opera commissioned a set of four short operas in their 10-Minute Opera Project to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the US Transcontinental railroad. The four works – all thematically related to the railroad – were directed by dramaturg Omer Ben Seadia and had a three-day rolling premiere schedule May 20–22, 2019, beginning in Brigham City, Utah, then in Ogden, Utah at the historic Union Station (Ogden, Utah), with the final premiere performance in Salt Lake City.

The four operas are:

• The Stone, the Tree, and the Bird by composer Jacob Lee and librettist Christine McDonough
• Completing the Picture, by composer Michael Ching and librettist/research/choreographer Victoria Panella Bourns
• Burial, by composer Tony Solitro and librettist Paisley Rekdal
• No Ladies in the Lady’s Book, by composer Lisa Despain and librettist Rachel Peters

In 2002, the Utah Opera participated in the 2002 Cultural Olympiad (a series of performances and art installations connected to the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah) by offering a performance of A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim. The musical was selected in part because of Sondheim is an American composer, to represented American opera to the international audience.[4] The performance on February 5, 2002, was offered in addition to the five regular-season performances in late January/early February, 2002. All performances took place at the historic Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake City.

The Costume Department is located in Utah Opera's production studios. In 1978, Susan Allred was named as lead designer of the costuming department, a position she held for more than 30 years. Highly detailed machines, cutting tables, and floors allow for production of costumes. This work can take 6 months to a year to complete for a single show. There are more than 150,000 individual pieces of inventory in the Costume Department, including small pieces like cravats, belts, hats, shoes, and ties. The storage room for these materials is so large that employees use maps to find needed items. The inventory is organized in 11 rows of racks with 2–3 layers of clothes per row, with separate rooms for smaller items like shoes, ties, and jewelry.

The Costume Department organizes rentals for at least 18–20 full productions every year, and rents out individual pieces or partial shows all year long. Measurements are sent into the shop, and alterations are all completed there to ensure the quality of costumes stay pristine. The total number of costumed productions in storage is 45, with the most popular being La bohème, Madama Butterfly, and The Barber of Seville.