Auction Benefitting Cincinnati Opera

Cincinnati Opera celebrates its gala annually with a festive evening filled with performances, cocktails, dinner and a live auction—the funds of which benefit the organization’s four-production summer season. This year’s November 18th black tie event is special. After almost two years of renovations, the 1878 Cincinnati Music Hall and home of the city’s classical musical performance is reopening with updated interiors and swanky, spacious new seats. The legacy of the arts organization in the region is long and impactful. Founded in 1920, Cincinnati Opera is the second oldest company in the country after the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

“We’ll have a wonderful performance of an aria from La Traviata,” explains event co-chair Anne Zaring, of what’s in store for the evening, in addition to cocktails, dinner, and a live auction. For the first time, the opera is also running the online auction component of the efforts with EBTH, in hopes that the scope and reach of the audience brings in even more funds for programming. “We do four operas each summer, and the entire benefit and online auction go to running them,” Zaring explains. “It’s such an incredible art form; all of the sets, costumes, internationally-renown singers who we fly in from across the globe, the full symphony orchestra.”

Available until November 20, EBTH auction items include rare rugs rescued from a Buddhist temple in Nepal before its destruction, Ferragamo and Chanel shoes, Diamond tickets to a Cincinnati Reds game, a Tom Levine etching, a crocodile Furla bag, and a 7-day holiday in the South of France. Proceeds support the mission of the opera which, Zaring explains, is “To enrich and connect the community through diverse opera experiences. “We do a lot of outreach in schools—every year, we do a children’s opera, like Little Red Riding Hood , and have trained singers go into classrooms with costumes and props. And we also do a lot of work in the community,” she continues, “We have something called Opera Express, where we go to different neighborhoods throughout the city in a bus, pull into parking lots and invite people over for a 15-minute opera experience. They truly fall in love with the art form.”