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 Arizona Opera's storage, administrative, and small-scale performance building on Central Avenue. | |
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| Address | Phoenix, Arizona US |
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| Coordinates | 33°28′02″N112°04′27″W / 33.4673202°N 112.0743041°W |
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Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.
Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first production, of Rossini's The Barber of Seville , in 1972. By 1976 the company had expanded to include performances in both Tucson and Phoenix. Arizona Opera is now permanently headquartered in Phoenix. [1] The company has a subscriber base of approximately 10,000 drawn from the two metropolitan areas, and an annual expenditure of $5.8 million, according to the company's 2011 IRS Form 990. [2] According to the Form 990 filed by the company in 2017, revenues for the 2016 tax year were $7,704,444 and expenses were $6,211,715. [3]
The appointment of Glynn Ross as general director in 1983 initiated a period of growth during which the company expanded its season from three to five productions. In 1996 and 1998 the company gained notice by staging Wagner's Ring Cycle as a summer festival in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ross retired in 1998 and was succeeded by David Speers, who increased spending on rehearsals, chorus, and orchestra in an effort to improve the quality of the company's productions. Under Speers' leadership subscriptions and single-ticket sales increased. In addition to the company's regular productions, Speers brought singers Samuel Ramey, Kiri Te Kanawa, Denyce Graves, and Jerry Hadley to Arizona for recital performances.
During the 2000–2001 season, the company appointed its first principal conductor, Cal Stewart Kellogg. Kellogg remained in that position through 2004, and is now director of the Symphony of the Southwest.
David Speers left the company in 2003 and was succeeded by Joel Revzen, a Juilliard-trained musician, conductor, and music-organization administrator. Revzen continued Speers' practice of mixing standard repertory with productions of less-often-performed works, e.g., Menotti's The Consul , Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera , and Handel's Semele. Revzen was succeeded as general director by Scott Altman in 2009, and Revzen has been named the company's conductor laureate. Altman oversaw the design and construction of the company's new office and production complex, the Arizona Opera Center, across Central Avenue from the Phoenix Art Museum in midtown Phoenix. The company announced Altman's resignation in April 2013. Arizona Opera artistic director Ryan Taylor was appointed interim general director upon Altman's departure, and then permanent general director in June 2013. Arizona Opera's current President and General Director is Joseph Specter, who was appointed in May 2016. [4]
In February–May 2017 Arizona Opera presented the world premiere of Craig Bohmler's opera Riders of the Purple Sage, based on Zane Grey's novel of the same name. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The production was also broadcast nationwide on November 25, 2017 on the WFMT Radio Network's American Opera Series, [10] [11] [12] and broadcast internationally in 2018 via distribution to the European Broadcasting Union. [13] [14] [15]
In late 2017, Arizona Opera announced a shift from their traditional season model. While retaining five productions per opera season, the fall and spring performances were split into two distinct performance series. [16]
Arizona Opera offers five productions with five performances each per season. The McDougall Arizona Opera RED Series is performed in the fall at the Herberger Theater Center (802 seats) in Phoenix and The Temple of Music and Art in Tucson (627 seats). [17] The spring Main Stage Series is presented at Phoenix Symphony Hall (2,312 seats) and the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall (2,289 seats).
The Arizona Opera Chorus is composed of professional singers from both Phoenix and Tucson. Choristers have been affiliated with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) since 1995. Union representation has resulted in improvements in chorus compensation and working conditions, and a concomitant improvement in the quality of new chorister candidates.
The Arizona Opera Orchestra is composed of music professionals from three major cities in Arizona — Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff — and is affiliated with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Like the chorus, union representation resulted in improvements in working conditions under a collective bargaining agreement. In 1998 orchestra members formed the Arizona Opera Orchestra Musicians Association (AZOOMA) to support the musicians and the company.
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, and is home to the University of Arizona. It is the second-largest city in Arizona behind Phoenix, with a population of 542,629 in the 2020 United States census, while the population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is 1,043,433. The Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area. Both Tucson and Phoenix anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor. The city is 108 miles (174 km) southeast of Phoenix and 60 mi (97 km) north of the United States–Mexico border. Tucson is the 34th-largest city and the 53rd-largest metropolitan area in the United States (2014).
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The orchestra's most recent music director is Riccardo Muti, whose tenure spanned 13 seasons, from 2010–2023. The CSO is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five".
Riders of the Purple Sage is a Western novel by Zane Grey, first published by Harper & Brothers in 1912. Considered by scholars to have played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre, the novel has been called "the most popular western novel of all time."
John Henry Waddell was an American sculptor, painter and educator. He had a long career in art education and has many sculptures on public display, but he may be best known for That Which Might Have Been—his memorial to the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine Opera productions.
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is a regional orchestra founded and headquartered in Elgin, Illinois. Its Music Director is Chad Goodman, former conducting fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. The Orchestra's season includes some 40 performances annually at the 1,200-seat Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin and the 440-seat Prairie Arts Center in Schaumburg.
Anna F. "Ann" Risley is a retired American actress and comedian. She was a cast member of the TV series Saturday Night Live for the 12 episodes of the 1980–1981 season. These 12 broadcasts were the first episodes after producer Lorne Michaels left the show.
The Arizona Theatre Company is a nonprofit, professional regional theater company operating in both Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. It performs a season of six productions at two theatres—the only League of Resident Theatres member to do so—at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.
John Massaro is an American conductor, opera director, composer, and pianist. Massaro is the co-founder and current Artistic Director of the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera.
Richard Holden was an American dancer, choreographer, choreologist, teacher, musician and writer.
The Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus is a boys' choir based in Tucson, Arizona, which performs locally, nationally, and internationally. Founded in 1939 and incorporated as a non-profit educational organization in 1945, its mission is to facilitate music education and social development among Tucson youth ages 6 to 21. The chorus, presently numbering 150 members, sends out touring companies of 30 boys each who sing folk songs, Western ballads, Mexican songs, Christmas carols, spirituals, pop music, classical music, Broadway show tunes, and American patriotic songs. The boys also perform rope tricks. The chorus has performed in major venues around the world as well as on television and radio, and in collaboration with symphony orchestras and arts organizations. It has released albums both under its own label, TABC Records, and with Capitol Records, United Artists, and C.P. MacGregor.
Keitaro Harada is a Japanese conductor and music and artistic director of Savannah Philharmonic. Harada is a former Associate Conductor of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Arizona Opera, Richmond Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra. He has been Music Director & Conductor of the Phoenix Youth Symphony, Assistant Conductor of Macon Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, he was featured in the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview by the League of American Orchestras. In 2023, he received The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award from the Solti Foundation U.S.
Louise Lincoln Kerr was an American musician, composer, and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. She wrote over 100 music compositions including fifteen symphonic tone poems, twenty works for chamber or string orchestra, a violin concerto, five ballets and incidental music, numerous piano pieces, and about forty pieces of chamber music. She was known as "The Grand Lady of Music" for her patronage of the arts. Louise Kerr helped to co-found and developed The Phoenix Symphony (1947), The Phoenix Chamber Music Society (1960), The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, The National Society of Arts and Letters (1944), Monday Morning Musicals, The Bach and Madrigal Society (1958), Young Audiences, The Musicians Club, and the Phoenix Cello Society. Kerr was also a benefactor to the Herberger School of Music at Arizona State University. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame on October 21, 2004 and was nominated by conductor and musicologist Carolyn Waters Broe.
Edward Leighton Varney Jr. (1914–1998) was an American Modernist architect working in Phoenix, Arizona from 1937 until his retirement in 1985. He designed the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, and Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. In 1941, he began his career, which would extend to his retirement in 1985. His firm would continue designing buildings into the 1990s.
Jacob Soulliere is a baritone opera singer.
The Tucson Girls Chorus is a girls' choir based in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1984, the non-profit organization accommodates girls aged 6 to 18 in six main choirs and numerous satellite choirs in low-income communities. Chorus members perform locally, nationally, and internationally. The chorus has released several CDs. In 2017, the organization opened the city's first public choir for girls and boys with special needs.
Sara Jobin ['JOHBIHN] is an American conductor. She is currently the principal conductor of the Center for Contemporary Opera.
Craig Bohmler is an American composer who specializes in opera and musical theater. His musicals include Gunmetal Blues (1991), which has had well over 100 professional productions; Enter the Guardsman (1997), which won the international Musical of the Year award and received an Olivier Award nomination; and Mountain Days (2000), celebrating the life of John Muir. His operas include Riders of the Purple Sage (2017), an adaptation of Zane Grey's book of the same title which was broadcast nationwide in November 2017 and internationally in 2018.
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