Seattle Opera will receive a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of Amelia, a newly commissioned American opera. The grant is a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to provide crucial support for the production of new contemporary opera, enabling Amelia to be produced by two other American opera companies following the opera’s world premiere in Seattle in May 2010. The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences will be the production sponsor for Amelia with a generous gift of $300,000. Simonyi lives in Medina.