The funds will be used to renovate the sixth floor of the opera house to create the Ford Center for Arts and Learning, to provide a down payment for a new parking structure, to complete decorative painting in the opera house and to retire existing debt. Ford Motor Co. has already contributed $3 million to the effort and the Kresge Foundation has issued a $3-million challenge grant toward the program.

The 2,700-seat Detroit Opera House started life as the Grand Circus Theater over 75 years ago as a movie and vaudeville house. After it was closed for more than a decade, the Michigan Opera Theater launched a $24-million campaign to re-open it in 1996. A second effort, begun in 1999, raised $18 million to pay down debt and pay for other improvements.

"The aptly named Crowning Achievement is the third and final phase to complete what we envisioned years ago," said DiChiera. "With the success of the Crowning Achievement, the Detroit Opera House will become a true community resource, in our time and in the future, offering not just opera and dance on the main stage, but a place for everyone to experience the power of art, to learn something unexpected and to express their creativity."