Press
Reviews
“The popularity of North Country Opera stemmed from its great songs, terrific singers, a great deal of wit, and a story everyone can relate to,” says former Ark founding director Dave Siglin. “Jay Stielstra should be the poet laureate of Michigan.”
- Ann Arbor Observer, Nov 2024
“This show is a must-see for any Michigander!”
- Life in Michigan, Oct 2022
“Like some of the wily trout lurking in the streams of northern Michigan, North Country Opera is a bit of an enigma – legendary and elusive, yet filled with a simple beauty that, if you can catch it, brings untold satisfaction.”
- Ann Arbor News, 2003
“Just get in and see it, and mourn that it hasn’t become a national treasure yet, merely a local landmark. New York has the Fantastiks; we have North Country Opera”
- Ann Arbor News, 1992
“As a folk tunesmith, he [Jay] is an acknowledged master – surely one of the best our state has ever produced.”
- The Detroit News, 1992
Other
Media
Director Ron Miller and actor David Menefee discuss the upcoming performance of North Country Opera with Cheboygan Opera House Director Owen Evans Goslin in 2024.
"North Country" Fare: The 40th-Anniversary Edition of Jay Stielstra’s Folk Opera Sails Into The Ark
Forty years ago, Jay Stielstra was playing his songs to enthusiastic listeners around Ann Arbor, mostly at Mr. Flood’s Party, a bar that once stood on 120 West Liberty. Bouyed by the response to his tunes, the folk singer decided to write some continuity and put them together in a play, North Country Opera.
“The main thing that carries it are the songs,” Stielstra says. “I asked other musicians I knew in Ann Arbor if they wanted to be in a play, and they all said yes.”
Stielstra knew one of the founders of the Performance Network, the late David Bernstein, and brought the work to him. “David was very enthusiastic,” Stielstra says, and North Country Opera premiered in 1982 as the fledgling theater's second production.
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'A love story about Michigan': Stielstra's 'North Country Opera' coming to LACA
Director Ron Miller told the Daily News “the closest it got to Ludington was Frankfort” during the play’s last tour in the ’90s.
Both Miller and musical director Judy Banker have history with “North Country Opera” and with Stielstra. Banker’s connection with the playwright dates back to the early ’80s, when the play first premiered at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor.
“I went to a performance of ‘North Country Opera’ … and subsequently became friends with the people involved,” Banker told the Daily News. “As the years passed, all of us would play music together … just informally like you would in an Irish pub.”
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Michigan music: Jay Stielstra, Michigan’s Poet Laureate
“…this year represents the 40th anniversary of North Country Opera, the first of the plays to be penned by Jay. In 1982, it was the second play to be staged at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor. The performance was taken on tour to Northern Michigan, as well as the UP, and was tremendously popular. North Country Opera is a tribute to Northern Michigan.
Set in the Buckhorn Bar, it is the north country’s own version of a timeless love story: a young man falls in love with the beauty of the northern woods and rivers — and the woman he meets there. North Country Opera has been revived in 1992, 1993, 2003, and will be again this year!”
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North Country Opera: The Return
LELAND — Back in 1982, renowned Michigan playwright and songwriter Jay Stielstra premiered his original musical, “North Country Opera,” in Ann Arbor.
Forty years later, the production is being revived in honor of its 40th anniversary. As part of its five-date tour, “North Country Opera” will be performed in Mancelona’s Green River Schoolhouse on Oct. 7-8; Cheboygan Opera House on Oct. 10; the Old Art Building in Leland on Oct. 12; and Ludington on Oct. 14, before turning south to Ann Arbor. Mancelona’s shows are sold out, but tickets are available at the other venues.
Stielstra’s folk production gathered long-time fans, garnered much praise, and earned a bit of a cult following of those who love hus work and the beauty of northern Michigan.
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