In his 37-year tenure, Ron Gretz took the Annapolis Opera from a struggling company and transformed it into a musical powerhouse.

This weekend, the artistic director and conductor was set to oversee his 51st and final production at Maryland Hall. Annapolis Opera has decided to cancel “Susannah” given the risk of the coronavirus, especially given that many theater goers are in the elderly population, a spokesman for the theater said.

Gretz, a lover of American operas, always had “Susannah” in mind for the Annapolis Opera. Set in Tennessee, the 1954 American opera “Susannah” tells a story through folk melodies of an 18-year-old girl who is labeled as a seductress after inadvertently inciting the lust of her church elders.

Gretz has been immersed in rehearsal during the run-up to his last production, which he expected to showcase the power behind the small opera’s bravado.

“It was a very difficult decision given that this would have been Ron’s and Braxton’s final production, as well as all the time and effort invested by the fill cast, but they felt it was the right decision to make in the interest of public health,” said spokesman Steven Adams.

He went on to teach and open an opera workshop at Community College of Baltimore County before he was hired as a course master at Baltimore Opera. Gretz was hired by the Annapolis Opera after conducting Johann Strauss II’s “Die FlederMaus” in 1982 and became the artistic director the next season.

Through Gretz’s leadership, the opera emerged from financial debt and continuously improved, attracting impressive talent and shows while fostering a respected reputation. While operas and other performing art companies across the nation have struggled, the Annapolis Opera has thrived.

“Our legacy would be that the opera company survived all those years, for 47 years,” Gretz said.

Now, at 75, Gretz is ready to retire.

“I certainly could go on conducting for five or 10 more years. But I just feel like Annapolis needs a change. They need some revitalization,” Gretz said.

That change looks like Craig Kier, Annapolis Opera’s new artistic director set to take over in July with a production of Giacomo Puccini’s “La bohème.” Kier is bringing lots of energy and new ideas to the company, Gretz said, and is the same age Gretz was when he became director in 1983.

“The company has reached a point where we are thriving. It’s not like ‘Wow, we need a shot in the arm.’ Things are going really well. And it’s great to have somebody step in when the company is in good shape,” Gretz said.

Annapolis Opera’s stage director and Gretz’s longtime colleague, Braxton Peters, is also celebrating his 27-year tenure and last production with “Susannah.”

The company has gotten better every year because of its professionalism and relationship with emerging artists, Peters said.

Singers and performers come to Annapolis Opera to work with Gretz, his colleagues say. His organization skills create a well-oiled rehearsal schedule that respects singer’s time by only calling in performers only when needed. Peters and Gretz also take lengths to make singers comfortable, even when rehearsal and shows get tense.

“Braxton would always say, ‘I don’t want somebody yelling at me. I want to treat singers the way I want to be treated.’ And I certainly feel the same way. Because of that, over the years, we’ve hired wonderful singers and they want to come back and sing for us again,” Gretz said.

Singers can also perform in roles they wouldn’t otherwise sing at large companies like the Metropolitan Opera House or the Sydney Opera House, which several singers who pass through Maryland Hall go on to do.

“In the last 10 years we’ve gotten a lot more talent artists but that’s because they spent 20 years before that working on these artists,” said Kathy Swekel, general director at Annapolis Opera. “It means a lot to an artist to come to a place where somebody really invests in them as an artist and helps them get to that next place artistically in their career.”

These high-quality shows produced some of Gretz’s personal favorites throughout his career, like the American opera “Little Women,” which he conducted in 2017 and Italian opera “The Barber of Seville,” which he conducted in 2018.

“It’s also a good family. It’s not a big, huge company. You get to actually know everybody. You build a community,” Gretz said.

During the first 20 years of Gretz’s career, the company operated with a staff of volunteers and hired local singers. Now, the opera has a full-time staff that “catapulted us into a great place,” Peters said. The company’s grant-writing process and business side of the arts has improved with professional staff, he said.

Although Gretz is retiring, he will continue to be involved in Annapolis Opera in some capacity. He will continue to teach part time as a vocal coach at Peabody Institute and work as an organist and choir director at his church.

As a Baltimore resident, Gretz looks forward to ending his commute on I-97, he said.