Is Modesto now the Valley’s cultural Mecca?

The Fresno Grand Opera is defunct now, along with the revered Fresno Metropolitan Museum, which closed in 2010.

Fresno Grand Opera brought us one of the greatest sopranos in the world, Renee Fleming. It brought us two of the greatest tenors in the world, Juan Diego Flores and Andrea Bocelli.

Now the opera company leaves a debt of $17,000 (among other debts) owed to the unpaid musicians who brilliantly performed the score for Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in January. I hope the Fresno Philharmonic is not next.

Meanwhile Modesto, at half the population of Fresno, continues with its opera company, its McHenry Museum and its symphony. Perhaps we culture aficionados should relocate to Modesto.

This story was originally published March 13, 2017 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Is Modesto now the Valley’s cultural Mecca?."