Whitestone Photo

Portrait of Elemer Nagy, a stage director and set designer who worked with the Central City Opera from 1949-1957.

Elemer Nagy, a stage director and set designer who worked with the Central City Opera from 1949-1957, shows a costume drawing to Virginia MacWatters.

Elemer Nagy, a stage director and set designer who worked with the Central City Opera from 1949-1957, and two unidentified women work at the piano.

Donald Oenslager shows Elemer Nagy, a stage director and set designer who worked with the Central City Opera, and Shirley Emmons various sketches.

Mimi Benzell, Wilma Spence, Eva Likova and Rosalind Elias who all played Ariadne in the 1954 Central City Opera production of ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' read the script together.

Christine Cardillo, Polyna Stoska, Eva Likova and Rosalind Elias, who all performed in the 1954 Central City Opera productions of ''Ariadne'' and ''Faust,'' chat by the piano.

Left to right, Louis Sgarro, Christine Cardillo, Virginia MacWatters and Theodor Uppman who all performed in the 1954 Central City Opera production of ''Ariadne,'' look at the script book.

(from left to right) Louis Sgarro, Rosalind Elias, Virgina MacWatters, and Theodor Uppman, perfromers from the 1954 Central City Opera production of ''Faust,'' pose for a picture by the piano.

Brian Sullivan, Theodor Uppman, Frances Bible and Rosalind Elias who all performed in the 1954 Central City Opera productions of ''Ariadne'' and ''Faust,'' gather arround a piano.

Genevieve Warner (second from right), a soprano singer from the Metropolitan Opera who performed with the Central City Opera in the 1952 production of "La Boheme" as Mimi, rehearses for an unidentified production with Michael Bondon (left), Hans Busch (second from left) and James Pease (right).