Curtain going up on museum's new opera house

It's been silent for decades, but soon the little Frank E. Davis Opera House will sing again. Not with much opera, of course. Few, if any, of these 19th-century performance halls ever hosted such grand productions. But on the first three weekends in December, it will be alive once more with the sounds of the season. After two years of repair and restoration, Genesee Country Village & Museum takes the wraps off its 68th and newest building on Friday, December 5. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for 11 a.m.

The Opera House will be one of a dozen buildings open and decorated for the holidays during Home for the Holidays, a new, self-guided daytime Yuletide program December 5-21 at the museum. Home for the Holidays is available Fridays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Restored to its turn-of-the-century glory days, the 119-year-old building features ornate, hand-applied stencils that cover the plaster walls and ceiling in the upstairs performance hall. The stencil restoration alone took more than four months to complete.

Included among its other distinctive features are a swooping awning with a standing seam roof that wraps around the first-floor storefront; a series of porthole windows with quarter-round panes of red, blue, green and yellow glass; a trapezoidal building footprint. The wall with three porthole windows is about three feet shorter than the opposite wall, the result of the original site in South Butler, Wayne County that was not quite square.

The first floor - originally a drug store and grocery - has been outfitted with hand-grained interior cupboards and shelving salvaged from an 1880s store in Rochester. It will not be used as a store, however. Next season visitors will find the former store used for a succession of historical exhibits.

During Yuletide, a series of special performances is scheduled in the performance hall on Saturdays and Sundays - two one-half hour programs for children at 11:30 a.m. and noon, and a musical program for an older audience at 1 p.m. Tickets are $3 in addition to the day program admissions. Reservations are encouraged because there is limited seating. Several performances are already sold out.

Visitors to the day Home for the Holidays program are able to visit the opera house on Fridays, and after the weekend performances.

Reservations are also required for the evening tour A Genesee Country Christmas Eve (adults $14/$10 members; youth 4-16 $10/$9 members) and buffet ($19.95 adult/$9.95 youth 4-10). Day visitor tickets (available in advance or at the door) are: adults $9/$7 members; youth 4-16 $6/$5 members. A tin ornament craft is $3. Call (585) 538-6822. The museum is located at 1410 Flint Hill Road, Mumford.