Michael Ballam: Utah tenor's career comes full circle

He talked the theater's owner into donating the place to the city and began to restore it. Wielding the clout of some of his big-time opera connections, not to mention a huge donation from philanthropist Helen Eccles, he raised $6.5 million and converted the old theater into the home of the Utah Festival Opera.

Today the Utah Festival Opera Company includes facilities for ballet, art, children's theater, poetry, sculpture and of course, opera. During the summer season, the UFOC does four operas simultaneously, reasoning that no one would travel to Logan to see one opera. The UFOC is becoming to Logan what the Shakespearean Festival is to Cedar City.

"If I took you to the Helen Eccles Theater (the opera facility) blindfolded and then took off your blindfold, you'd say you were in London or Paris or New York," says Larry Miller, a fan and financial supporter of the UFOC. "You'd never guess it was in Logan, Utah."

The UFOC also reaches beyond its own theater. In the off-season, it provides a free service to some 200 Utah schools to help kids write their own operas. The children write the words and music and design the costumes and sets. The process begins with the children singing their opera; a UFOC specialist records it, then prints a score and a CD and sends it back to the school to use for rehearsals. The children perform their operas at the UFOC in April.

So far, they have produced 90 original operas by school children, with a total audience of 8,000.

"Every kid in this state needs to see this," says Ballam. "They need to see heroes in other areas besides sports. Not everyone can be a Karl Malone. We're doing it for the right reasons. We want to influence children and make the world a better place. We're not as interested in entertaining as we are edifying. We want them to leave the theater as better people."

To keep the UFOC in business, Ballam must raise more than $2 million each year and serve as talent scout. Just in the past month alone he has auditioned singers in Lincoln, Neb.; Lawrence, Kan.; Lexington, Ken.; Bloomington, Ind.; Boston, New York and Chicago. He listens to more than 1,000 auditions a year and has downloaded more than 4,500 of them into his laptop computer.

"He is without peer when it comes to arts in Utah," says Hatch. "He is a Utah treasure. I can't say enough good about him. If Michael Ballam ever needs anything from me, I'm going to be there for him."

Looking back on it all now, Laurie says the temporary loss of Ballam's voice "turned out to be a blessing. He needed to be here. To do concerts for the church. For the UFOC. To sing in hospitals. And his kids needed him here."

Ballam has come full circle; he is, in essence, again singing to those in need from the top of a table. Says Laurie, "He told me once that if he could be remembered for just one thing and have it put on his headstone, it would be 'He was a kind man.' "

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com