The Atlanta Opera is an opera company located in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Founded in 1979, it produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for Metropolitan Atlanta and the Southeast. [1]
In 2007, The Atlanta Opera moved into its new performance home at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre where it produces four mainstage productions each season. [2]
In the late 1970s, the Metropolitan Opera stopped touring to Atlanta, leaving a void in the region. Volunteers and civic leaders joined forces to continue opera in Atlanta. In 1979, the Atlanta Civic Opera was formed, a result of a merger between two competing entities, Atlanta Lyric Opera and Georgia Opera.
The first artistic director was noted composer Thomas Pasatieri. In 1985, the company was renamed to The Atlanta Opera. The company's first production was La Traviata on March 28, 1980, at the Fox Theatre. The following December, a festive gala was held in Symphony Hall with such noted young artists as Catherine Malfitano, Jerry Hadley and Samuel Ramey.
Atlanta Opera has a number of home venues: in 1990 it moved to the Atlanta Symphony Hall, in 1995 to the Fox Theatre, in 1998 to its own building, the Atlanta Opera Center at 728 West Peachtree St., in 2003 to the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, [3] and finally in 2007, The Atlanta Opera moved into its new performance home at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, just outside the city and county limits.
The company celebrated its 30-year anniversary during the 09/10 Season. The current music director and Conductor is Arthur Fagen, Professor of Music (Orchestral Conducting) at Indiana University. In 2013 the company hired the internationally recognized stage director, Tomer Zvulun to be its General and artistic director. Zvulun directed over 15 new productions in Atlanta, including Dead Man Walking, The Flying Dutchman, Soldier Songs, Silent Night, Maria de Buenos Aires, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Lucia di Lammermoor, Magic Flute, Eugene Onegin. The company's innovation initiatives garnered national attention and resulted in a Harvard Business School case study, an International Opera Awards nomination and an ArtsATL luminary award. The company celebrates its 40th anniversary in the 19/20 season and is performing six productions per season.
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma. The company was re-organized by Fox in 1956 under its present name and, after her 1981 departure, it has continued to be of one of the major opera companies in the United States. The Lyric is housed in a theater and related spaces in the Civic Opera Building. These spaces are now owned by the Lyric.
Vancouver Opera is the second largest performing arts organization in British Columbia and the largest opera company in western Canada. Its mainstage performances occur in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, other venues in Vancouver and occasionally elsewhere in British Columbia. Vancouver Opera has one of only two professional opera orchestras in Canada. After many regular seasons with four mainstage productions a year, the company saw its first festival season in 2017. Vancouver Opera also runs a school touring and education program, and various community events.
The Joffrey Ballet is an American dance company and training institution in Chicago, Illinois. The Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at the Civic Opera House, including its annual presentation of The Nutcracker.
The Atlanta Civic Center was a theater located in Atlanta, Georgia. It closed in 2014. The theater, which seats 4,600, regularly hosted touring productions of Broadway musicals, concerts, seminars, comedy acts, and high school graduations and commencement ceremonies for Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. In addition to performances, the civic center could host conferences and exhibits as well, with 5,800 square feet of meeting space. The civic center was owned and operated by the Atlanta city government's Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, but brought in enough revenue to be self-supporting.
The Lyric Performing Arts Center is a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, located close to the University of Baltimore law school. The building was modeled after the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, and it was inaugurated on October 31, 1894, with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured soloist. Beginning in 1904, it was also used for touring performances by the Metropolitan Opera, and from 1950, it was the home of the Baltimore Opera Company until that company's liquidation in 2009.
Opera Lyra Ottawa (OLO) was a non-profit professional opera company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1984 by Canadian soprano Diana Gilchrist after the demise of the National Arts Centre's annual summer opera productions. The company performed fully staged and concert version operas in their original language with French and English surtitles at the National Arts Centre as well as running outreach and young artist programs.
Virginia Opera is an opera company based in the Commonwealth of Virginia which was first organized in 1974 by a group of Norfolk, Virginia community volunteers.
Opera Colorado is an opera company located in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1981, it presents an annual season of three to four fully staged productions. Its primary performance venue is the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the longest continuously performing ballet company in the United States and the State Ballet of Georgia.
Opera Memphis is a Memphis, Tennessee non-profit arts organization chartered in 1956 by a group of Memphians interested in producing regional opera. Charter signatories included noted Memphians Philip Belz and Walter Chandler. Early productions consisted mainly of local singers and local directors. During this initial period the Metropolitan Opera Company toured regularly through the area and performed in Memphis two to three times per year. As the company grew, the performers and directors became more regional and the sets and costumes more professional. By the mid-1970s, Opera Memphis began bringing in well-known singers like Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Sherrill Milnes, and Birgit Nilsson to perform in lead roles.
Opera in Atlanta has a long and uneven history. The first shows performed in Atlanta predate the American Civil War and were primarily performed in makeshift facilities modified for the operatic arts. The main company for the region is the Atlanta Opera, founded in 1979, which produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for all ages. The Atlanta Opera is based at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
Mobile Opera is an opera company located in Mobile, Alabama and is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States, as well as the oldest in the State of Alabama, having been founded as the "Mobile Opera Guild" in 1945. Under its founder, Madame Rose Palmai-Tenser, a European concert artist from Czechoslovakia, two performances were presented in April 1946. As its General Director, Mrs. Tenser continued to lead the company until 1971.
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is a performing arts venue located in the Cumberland/Galleria edge city, in northwest Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The $145 million facility celebrated its grand opening September 15, 2007, with a concert by Michael Feinstein and Linda Eder.
Pacific Opera Victoria is located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It performs three full productions per season at Victoria's Royal Theatre accompanied by members of the Victoria Symphony. In their 2009/2010 season, Pacific Opera Victoria expanded to four productions per season and added Saturday matinees.
The American Musical Theatre of San Jose (AMTSJ), previously known as the San Jose Civic Light Opera (SJCLO), was a major professional nonprofit musical theatre company in San Jose, California. Founded in 1934 as the San Jose Light Opera Association, it became the second largest theatre company in the Northern California, with an annual budget of $9.8 million and an attendance exceeding 150,000, including 15,000 season ticket holders. The company performed at the 2,677-seat San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. The organization incurred debts after a 2002 agreement to become a receiving house for touring Broadway productions. It closed in December 2008.
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States. Beginning with its first season in 1920, Cincinnati Opera has produced operas in the summer months of June and July with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra providing orchestral accompaniment.
The Toledo Opera is an American opera company in Toledo, Ohio, performing in the Valentine Theatre in downtown Toledo. The company's season consists of three fully-realized operas, plus additional community programming for the Northwest Ohio region.
The arts in Atlanta are well-represented, with a prominent presence in music, fine art, and theater.
Lyric Opera Baltimore was an American opera company based in Baltimore, Maryland. The group performed its inaugural season in 2011, bringing opera back to the Lyric Opera House on Mount Royal Avenue after the unfortunate 2009 bankruptcy filing at the beginnings of the recent Great Recession of 2008-2009 of the now-defunct longtime Baltimore Opera Company. That company had become known for its espousal of American singers and its commitment to education and outreach since its beginnings as the Baltimore Civic Opera Company in the 1920s and under the later sponsorship of the nationally renowned diva and Baltimorean, the late Rosa Ponselle.
Tomer Zvulun is an Israeli stage director. Since 2013 he is the General and Artistic Director of Atlanta Opera.
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