"Libretto" Roger Weitz's Opera Omaha Story

Roger Weitz, who departed Opera Omaha at the end of 2022, looks back at his 11 years as General Director of Opera Omaha and his career in the arts.

Omaha native Roger Weitz thought he was lucky to land an internship at Opera Omaha between his junior and senior year studying voice at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Not only was he happy to be at home, the experience also revealed a new career path.

“I didn’t love performing and I hadn’t really found my operatic voice… In the summer of 1998, Jane Hill was the executive director and Hal France was the artistic director. And for a summer I just embedded myself; whatever needed to be done, I was happy to do. I had a lot of different kinds of jobs, including with the company’s community engagement programs, which at that time involved lots of run-out performances,” Weitz recalled. “And it was that experience at Opera Omaha as a summer intern that really opened my eyes to the creative world of managing an arts organization.”