These attendance figures mark an 8 percent increase over last season.

According to company officials, the season's success is largely due to its production of Margaret Garner, the new opera it co-commissioned with Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Company of Philadelphia. The opera, with music by Richard Danielpour and a libretto by novelist Toni Morrison, tells the story of a runaway slave who kills her daughter rather than see her returned to slavery.

Cincinnati Opera's production of Margaret Garner this month, which followed the world premiere at MOT in May, sold out all three performances.

"It's been an extraordinary year for Cincinnati Opera," said company president Harry Fath, "with the opening of the new Corbett Opera Center at Music Hall, the continued success of our festival campaign, now at $9.3 million, and the appointment of our new artistic director, Evans Mirageas."

Mirageas will take up his new position on September 1, replacing Nicholas Muni.