Eastern Maine’s live opera season for 2001-2002 is set.

Live opera? Not the kind that requires tilting an ear toward the radio?

You’ve got it.

The Maine Grand Opera Company will begin its first season with a gala on June 30, then follow up with “The Magic Flute” in December, and “Hansel and Gretel” next spring – all scheduled for the Camden Opera House.

The new company was the idea of Karen Eisenhauer, a professional opera singer who performed in Europe for several years, and did some producing and directing while living in Germany.

“I had no intention to start an opera company,” explained Eisenhauer, who moved to Camden last year with her husband and son. She also has family in Winterport.

“I opened a voice studio. That’s what I wanted to do. And I looked for things to attend and participate in,” she added. “I’m here all year-round.”

Live opera is not plentiful in Maine – an occasional visit by a touring company to Orono’s Maine Center for the Arts or to Portland; and seasonal performances by the Surry Opera Company and the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre.

“Bruce Hangen does a wonderful job with The PORT,” Eisenhauer said of Portland’s professional opera. But she wanted to see live opera offered year-round, and, just as importantly, in a location closer to the rest of Maine.

It was an experience as voice coach for a production of the musical “Oklahoma” last winter that really got Eisenhauer into the musical community and talking about the possibilities of opera.

“I just started to feel there was enough interest,” Eisenhauer explained. “I tried to connect with every person I could find in the music scene. There were so many, just all networking.”

February auditions at the University of Maine’s Minsky Auditorium drew eight singers, four of whom were signed up for the gala – John Adams, a bass-baritone from Searsport; Jennifer Stanton-Smith, a lyric soprano from Bar Harbor; Dean Jorgenson, a bass from Camden; and Amie Lavway, a lyric soprano from Portland.

“I was so pleasantly surprised with the phenomenal amount of talent we have here,” Eisenhauer said. “They’ve all sung in Europe, as well as in the United States.” She followed up with auditions in New York City, and gleaned seven more singers for the gala.

Eisenhauer also has started getting calls from other opera singers in Maine who are interested in future productions, something that pleases her greatly. She often is asked how she chose the home base for the new company.

“Really, I chose Camden because the house was available, and it seemed to be central to the geographic area,” an area she sees as running from Bangor and points north down to Damariscotta and over to the Augusta area.

When Eisenhauer refers to “the house,” she has in mind a very special venue – the Camden Opera House on Main Street in one of the state’s most popular coastal towns.

“It has a wonderful ambience,” she said, gazing up at the balcony, the ivory and gold walls, the stage with its loge boxes on either side.

“I just wanted that complete picture of opera, and this house just seemed to put that button on it,” she said, adding that the 106-year-old opera house reminded her of many of the places where she sang in Europe.

The gala will be black tie-optional, she explained, giving attendees the choice of whether to don their most formal clothing. “Galas are supposed to be festive. They’re supposed to be fun.”

The program will range from opera pieces such as “The Barber of Seville” and “Toreador” to a second act featuring songs from “Porgy and Bess,” “Candide,” “Sweeney Todd” and even “Annie Get Your Gun.”

Tickets are $40 each for the event, which is intended to raise funds for the company.

Maine Grand Opera has been incorporated as a nonprofit entity, with a broad-based board of directors, Eisenhauer said. She is the board chairman, and also the artistic director, but will not be singing.

Accompaniment will be provided by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and Eisenhauer hopes the organization will be involved in future productions, as well.

Auditions in September will help fill casts for “The Magic Flute” and “Hansel and Gretel,” which will be sung in English, she said. “We plan on using as many members of the community as possible.”

The director for those productions will be well-known opera director and Camden resident Beaumont Glass, whom Eisenhauer describes as “such an enthusiast. He’s an artesian well of information.”

It will be a busy year, but Eisenhauer is already looking at expanding the company’s offerings down the road with an outreach program to schools and a summer apprenticeship program for the midcollege level and beyond.

That’s “phase two of my five-year program,” she said. “We’re just going to keep going until somebody says no.”

Tickets for the gala may be obtained by calling 763-3071, or writing Maine Grand Opera, P.O. Box 656, Camden, ME 04843.