The Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra was a non-profit, professional opera company and orchestra founded under that name in 1993 and based in Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States. By uniting several organizations including the then-Connecticut Grand Opera in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the Stamford Chamber Orchestra under the general director and conductor Laurence Gilgore, the opera company and orchestra came together as one organization. [1] [2] The amalgamated company is often referred to as CGO&O.
CGO&O is a member of OPERA America and has received critical praise from The New York Times , [3] London's The Financial Times , [ citation needed ], Opera News , [ citation needed ], Opera magazine, [ citation needed ] and The New Yorker .[ citation needed ]
The company presents three fully staged operas each year. In August 1985, under General Manager John Hiddlestone, it became the third American opera company ever to have been invited to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival with Menotti's The Consul . [4]
Past productions having featured artists such as Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Alessandra Marc, Peter Serkin, and Renée Fleming, as well as directors Arvin Brown and Tom O'Horgan.
According to Form 990 Tax forms, they terminated their non-profit activities in 2012 [5]
The Dutch National Opera is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a modern building designed by Cees Dam and Wilhelm Holzbauer that opened in 1986.
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also specialized in Czech music as a whole, producing many recordings for the Czech label Supraphon.
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016, and again in May 2024.
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The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music and the performing arts are invited to join the festival. Visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops are also hosted.
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Thea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972.
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In 2017, the City of Stamford established the Stamford Arts and Culture Commission to help bolster arts and tourism in the city.
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Sir Donald Cameron Runnicles is a Scottish conductor, known for his Romantic symphonic and operatic repertoire, especially Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner. With a career that has spanned the USA, Germany and his native Scotland, Runnicles has served as Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Generalmusikdirektor of Deutsche Oper Berlin and as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He is scheduled to serve as chief conductor-designate for the 2024–2025 season of the Dresden Philharmonic.
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Edinburgh Grand Opera was Scotland's oldest existing grand opera company, founded in 1955 by Richard Telfer. This society was run by its non-professional chorus with advice and support from the professional Artistic and Musical Directors and Designers it engaged. It was originally known as the Edinburgh Grand Opera Group, and it has also been referred to as Edinburgh Grand Opera Company. Its soloists were a mixture of amateur, semi-professional and professional singers from Scotland and abroad, many of whom were students or graduates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. It was the first amateur company to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.
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