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Don’t let such descriptors as “historic” and “rich in tradition” fool you: You can always expect the unexpected at the opening of the Central City Opera’s Summer Festival.

Photo 1: Katie Horan, here with escort Kevin Goehl, is a sixth-generation Coloradan, her family having arrived here in the 1850s. Photo 2: Escort Dan Luethke gives Flower Girl Caroline Hansen an assist with her shoe. A published poet, Caroline is a state-champion synchronized swimmer. Photo 3: Courtney Davis was student body president at Colorado Academy and will attend Dartmouth, her parents’ alma mater. Photo 4: As a Flower Girl and escort, Christina and William Brinkerhoff continued their family’s long association with the Central City Opera. She will attend the Universityof Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Photo 5: John Morey Ferguson escorted Leigh Cousins, whose great uncle, Jarvis Fox was a prospector and part-owner of the successful Central Mine in Springdale, Colo. Photo 6: Sarah Wollenweber, left, is part of a family that arrived in Colorado in 1862. Anne Stavros, whose mother, Margaret, was the Flower Girl chairwoman, graduated with honors from Cherry Creek High School and will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photo 7: Ali Zarlengo, left, is descended from a family that homesteaded near Tolland in 1890 to supply timber for the construction of the Moffat Tunnel. Taylor Sperry was on the High Academic Honor Roll at Kent Denver School and will attend Connecticut College. Photo 8: Kelsey Smith, left, is a three-time state tennis champ and fourth-generation Coloradan; Jaclyn Wylie, center, is the daughter of banker and opera board member Scott Wylie; while her cousin, Erin Wylie, was captain of Machebeuf High School’s varsity soccer team. Photo 9: Ashley Rose was president of the French, Peer Tutor and AIDS Awareness clubs at Colorado Academy. She also was on the Honor Roll, a delegate to the 2003 National Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., and the 2004 Global Young Leaders Conference in Europe. She’ll attend Tulane University in New Orleans. Photo 10: Caroline Hanson, left, is a graduate of East High School where she played varsity field hockey and was a member of the National Honor Society. She is a state champion synchronized swimmer and volunteers as a tutor at Warren Village. She’ll attend CU-Boulder, as will classmate Maria Naves, center. Maria’s parents are 7News anchor Bertha Lynn and Judge Larry Naves. Edward Scott, right, was her escort. Photo 11: Melissa Murray, here with escort Nicholas Palmeri, was the editor of Colorado Academy’s literary magazine. She’s also a competitive equestrian, an accomplished cook and an avid reader. Come fall, she’ll be a freshman at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Photo 12: Margaret Dirickson “Mimi” Liedtke, pictured with her mother, Leslie, became acquainted with the Central City Opera as a tot when she helped distribute flowers to patrons of the Central City Fashion Show. The Colorado Academy graduate will attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. At CA, she received a National Scholastic Award in painting and the Teachers Choice Art Award; she also spent a month in Bali doing community service work. Photo 13: Caroline Cowperthwaite Jones is a fifth-generation Coloradan who received awards for art and photography while attending Colorado Academy. She’s a Mile High Scholar and will attend Middlebury College in Vermont. Photo 14: Kelly Parker, who asked her brother, Chris, to be her escort, is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School and will attend the University of Kansas. In high school, she was a member of DECA and volunteered on behalf of Families First, Girls, Inc. of Metro Denver and the Jesus to the World soup kitchen. Photo 15: Caroline Hansen and Edward Scott. Photo 16: Flower Girl Jennifer Jones with, from left, her mother, Nancy; brother Matthew; escort Zach May; father Doug; and sister Elizabeth. A graduate of Mullen High who will attend Southern Methodist University, Jennifer made all-state track, was nominated for the Wendy’s Heisman Award for Outstanding Scholar-Athlete, and traveled to Ecquador to teach children as her community service project. Photo 17: Paige Hamilton with her daughter, Lesley, who was co-captain of Cherry Creek High’s varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams. Lesley also was a member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society; her college choice is the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Photo 18: Katrina Brinkerhoff was on the Honor Roll and golf team at The Cate School in Santa Barbara, where she also was a teaching assistant for Sophomore Seminar, a health and social development class, and co-chair and volunteer at Foster Home, which provides housing for developmentally disabled and/or disadvantaged children and adults. She’ll attend Reed College in Portland, Ore. Photo 19: Amy Craig, a graduate of George Washington High School, made first team All-League Lacrosse and also participated in Key Club and the Frisbee Club and received the Excellence in French award. She’s a fifth-generation Coloradan and her great-great-grandfather, Edwin Eaton, was secretary of state under Gov. Routt. She’ll attend Amherst College in Massachusetts. Photo 20: Katie Horan, a sixth-generation Coloradan, graduated from St. Mary’s Academy where she was on the swimming, volleyball, golf and basketball teams. Her family arrived in Colorado in the 1850s and was prominent in the funeral and mining industries, as well as politics. She’ll major in business at Arizona State University. Photo 21: Priscilla “LaLa” Lichty had two older sisters precede her as Central City Flower Girls; in addition, her father, the late Roger Lichty, was a Flower Girl escort in 1967. She’s a graduate of St. Mary’s Academy, where she was vice president of the Drama Club and a member of the Thespian Society. She volunteers in the Alzheimer’s unit at Sunrise Assisted Living Center and will attend St. Louis University.

This year, the blast of dynamite that for 72 years signaled the start of an opera season was replaced by a blank shot from a .357 magnum Smith & Wesson by Harley Longan, manager of historic properties, from a hill behind Central City’s historic opera house.

“Good dynamite is becoming increasingly difficult to come by,” said Dan Ritchie, chairman of the opera board of directors and the one who introduced the 23 Flower Girls. In other words, the stuff that makes a big ka-boom has become too expensive to shoot off at random.

The June 25 event also was the first time in many years the Flower Girls wore gowns that did not have any hint of yellow; they were custom-made from sage-green matelasse, woven with a shimmer of rose bouquets. Yellow’s role in the opening night festivities can be traced to 1878 when Central City’s Gold Rush was in full swing and the Cornish miners brought with them beautiful yellow climbing roses from their native Cornwall, flowers that still grow around the opera house.

As they have since the beginning, the Flower Girls carried woven baskets filled with nosegays (made from miniature Gerbera daisies, lavender and delicate pompon daisies) that were distributed to opening night patrons at the “Madama Butterfly” intermission. When the cast took its curtain call, the flowers were lobbed onto the stage in a variation of a tradition started when the early-day miners tossed coins at the end of a performance to show appreciation.

The Flower Girl presentation is Colorado’s oldest debutante event, and the honorees are recent high school graduates from families with deep ties to Colorado history or who have distinguished themselves in business, civic or social circles.

Katie Horan is a sixth-generation Coloradan whose father’s family arrived here in the 1850s and has been involved in the funeral business since. Other family members were figures in politics and the gold and silver rush. A graduate of St. Mary’s Academy, she will major in business at Arizona State University.

Fifth-generation Coloradan Caroline Cowperthwaite Jones is the great-granddaughter of Gertrude Taussig, who helped form the Central City Opera House Association. Jones’ grandmother and step-grandfather served on the opera board while other family members held positions ranging from park commissioner to president of the Denver Medical Society. Caroline played varsity lacrosse at Colorado Academy and will attend Middlebury College.

Another fifth-generation Coloradan, Amy Craig, is the great-great-granddaughter of Edwin Eaton, secretary of state under Colorado Gov. John L. Routt. She graduated from George Washington High School, where she was first-team all-league lacrosse, and will attend Amherst College.

Leigh Cousins, a graduate of Holy Family High School and captain of the 2004 3A state champion spirit team, is the great-niece of Jarvis Fox, a prospector and part-owner of the successful Central Mine in Springdale, Colo. Her great aunt, Helen Cossitt Julliard of New York, donated Cossitt Fieldhouse to Colorado College in 1913.

Ashley Rose, president of the French, Peer Tutor and AIDS Awareness clubs at Colorado Academy, asked Geoff Smith to be her escort. Both will head south for college: Rose to Tulane and Smith to Vanderbilt.

Ashley Rose also was one of five Flower Girl participants to have attended kindergarten through 8th grade together at St. Anne’s School. The others were Ali Zarlengo, Jaclyn Wylie, Kelsey Smith and her escort, Tom Lorenzen.

Kelsey Smith is a fourth-generation Coloradan whose twin half-sisters were Flower Girls in 1989. A graduate of Kent Denver, she also won her third state singles tennis championship this year and expects to play for Colorado College.

Courtney Davis, student body president and yearbook co-editor at Colorado Academy, will attend Dartmouth, the college at which her parents – Anthony and Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis – met.

Other Flower Girls were cousins Christina Renee and Katrina Jean Brinkerhoff, both graduates of The Cate School in Santa Barbara, Calif.; Lesley Hamilton, co-captain of Cherry Creek High’s varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams; Caroline Hansen, an East High graduate and state champion synchronized swimmer; Jennifer Jones, an all-state track and swimming champ from Mullen High who will attend Southern Methodist University; Priscilla “LaLa” Lichty, Drama Club vice president at St. Mary’s Academy and will attend St. Louis University; Margaret “Mimi” Liedtke, an accomplished artist and Colorado Academy grad who served as a junior Flower Girl years ago, helping to hand out flowers at the Central City Fashion Show; Melissa Murray, editor of Colorado Academy’s literary magazine and a competitive equestrienne who will attend Colby College; Maria Jo Naves, an East High grad who has traveled to South Korea, France, England, Iowa and Florida with the Colorado Children’s Chorale; Kelly Parker, who, like her mother, 1979 Flower Girl Brooke Parker, volunteers for Families First and Girls, Incorporated of Metro Denver; Taylor Sperry, founder of the Kent Denver Mountaineering Club and a member of the school’s High Honor Roll; Margaret Stavros, whose mother, Margaret, was the Flower

Girl chairman and whose two older sisters also were Flower Girls; Sarah Wollenweber, a fourth-generation Coloradan whose family arrived in 1862, and whose aunt, Cindy, was a Flower Girl in 1979; Erin Wylie, who was varsity soccer captain at Machebeuf High; Erin’s cousin Jaclyn Wylie, daughter of banker and opera board member Scott Wylie; and Ali Zarlengo, whose family arrived in Colorado in 1890 to homestead near Tolland and supply timber for the construction of the Moffat Tunnel.

Opening night was chaired by Jean Sayre and Ann Clark; Julie Rose was the Flower Girl co-chair.

Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com