Harry Connick, Jr. Films Latest Video At Historic Derby Site

DERBY, CT — Sometimes, you just luck out.

Had someone told Harry Connick, Jr. that 10 inches of snow would be falling during the shoot for his latest music video, he probably would have chosen a different location. But then the world would never have seen the exquisite marriage of two timeless classics: the jazz singer's rendition of the Anglican hymn, "Amazing Grace," and the Sterling Opera House in Derby.

The video is for the first single from Connick's latest album, "Alone With My Faith." It opens with a drone-captured unscripted snowstorm whaling away above the Sterling's Italianate Victorian arches, recreating a perfect, if accidental, Currier and Ives lithograph.

Connick told the Valley Independent Sentinel the video was shot on Feb. 1, and produced by his daughter, Georgia. She discovered the old theater, which had not been used for any kind of performance since 1945, while searching the Internet.

Sterling Opera House, the first building in Connecticut to be listed on the National Register of Historical Places, is named after Charles Sterling, a piano manufacturer. It opened in 1889 and is located across from the Derby green. The building had developed a reputation for its high quality acoustics and Richard Wagner-inspired triangular layout that provides all attendees with a good view.

George Burns, Gracie Allen, Harry Houdini, John Philip Sousa Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart have all graced the Sterling's stage between its opening in 1889 and 1945. It later served as a police station, Derby's City Hall and local jail, according to its website.

For an abandoned building, the Sterling has been remarkably busy over the years. Much of that can be attributed to it being allegedly haunted. The SyFy Channel's "Ghost Hunters" kicked up the dust there a few years back, and the Travel Channel's Sterling-starring episode of "Kindred Spirits"aired last year.

"Alone With My Faith" is set to be released on Mar. 19.