BOZEMAN — Since 1979, Intermountain Opera Bozeman has produced professional operas in Bozeman and beyond. As it becomes known as Opera Montana, the organization’s past is the focus of a new digital collection created at the Montana State University Library.

The collection, a collaboration between the MSU Library and Opera Montana, includes each of Opera Montana’s opera and musical theater programs, which have been digitized, described and preserved for perpetuity. In all, the collection contains more than 50 items and is expected to continue to grow as Opera Montana produces new shows. The materials are publicly available at arc.lib.montana.edu/intermountain-opera/. Recordings of 50 past performances are also available with permission from Opera Montana.

The collection is named the John Frederick Santilli and Suzanne Day Intermountain Opera Bozeman Collection. Santilli, who died in 2020, and Day have been longtime friends and supporters of Intermountain Opera Bozeman and provided funds for the collection.

“It has been a pleasure working with Opera Montana to preserve their history and make their legacy available more broadly,” said Doralyn Rossmann, dean of the MSU Library. “As the Opera continues to grow its presence in Montana, it is important to be able to document its past and future.”

Brandon Watson, MSU Library’s digital operations manager, has been leading the project. He said conversations about the collection first began in 2017.

“Our team of application developers, archivists and students who performed digitization work all took great pride in contributing to this collaboration,” Watson said.

“This collection tells the story, along with many of our other collections, of one of Montana’s most vital arts organizations and its tremendous growth over nearly a half-century,” said Jodi Allison-Bunnell, head of Archives and Special Collections at the MSU Library, who also performs in the opera orchestra.

The MSU Library’s collections include many unique holdings that tell the stories of regional writers like Ivan Doig; Montana women’s history; the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem; Montana’s agricultural history; and numerous other topics. Arts-related collections document the history of the performing arts in the region, including the Virginia City Players, the papers of composer Eric Funk, records from the Bozeman Symphony and the wide-ranging performing arts history of MSU.

The MSU Library’s Archives and Special Collections are open for anyone to visit during library hours. Researchers can schedule a reading room appointment, and library staff will answer questions through the MSU Library’s contact form at lib.montana.edu/archives/contact-form.