81-Year-Old New Yorker Launches Opera Company in Mexico

Picture walking through a Mexican market and suddenly hearing opera singers performing between the tortilla stands. That's the kind of magic Kate Burt brings to Guanajuato, Mexico, where the 81-year-old New Yorker founded an opera company that's changing lives.

Burt arrived in Guanajuato in 2009 as a 65-year-old retiree who barely spoke Spanish. The former mezzo-soprano and theater teacher had a plan: learn the language by auditing music classes at the local university.

"I just listened until I could talk," she says. Within a year, she knew how to say "B minor" in Spanish and had made friends throughout the city's arts community.

Her big break came while wearing homemade angel wings. A children's theater asked her to design costumes for a traditional Christmas play, so she hand-painted two-meter-high wings on her old sewing machine. When they didn't fit in a taxi, she wore them across town, drawing stares and pointing from locals.

That walk changed everything. On the way, she bumped into the university's voice director, who asked her to teach acting skills to music students. Three semesters of teaching led to directing plays in 2012, which sparked an idea.

"It seemed strange that a city with so much culture had virtually no opportunities for singers to perform," Burt explains. So she started small, building scenes and producing modest shows.

The Ripple Effect

In 2018, Burt officially founded Opera Guanajuato as a nonprofit. The organization now produces two to three full productions yearly, from "The Magic Flute" to "Hansel and Gretel," performing not just in Guanajuato but also in nearby towns like San Miguel de Allende.

Almost all choir members are Mexican, many performing publicly for the first time in their lives. Opera Guanajuato holds open auditions and listens to singers from across the country, giving talented performers their first real shot at a stage career.

The organization offers scholarships to gifted singers who couldn't otherwise afford training. It employs Mexican actors, musicians, dancers, and designers, creating a ripple of opportunity through the local arts community.

Burt's creativity knows no bounds. Beyond traditional venues, she's brought opera to the Mercado Hidalgo, where classical arias float between vegetable stands and cheese shops, making high art accessible to everyone.

What started as one woman's Spanish-learning adventure has become a cultural institution that proves it's never too late to build something beautiful.