Harvard College Opera

Last updated
Agassiz House, whose theatre has been the venue for HCO's productions since 2014 Agassiz House, Radcliffe College.jpg
Agassiz House, whose theatre has been the venue for HCO's productions since 2014

Harvard College Opera (HCO), formally the Harvard College Opera Society, is a collegiate opera company composed of undergraduates at Harvard College and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1992 at Dunster House as the Dunster House Opera Society, the organization aims to expand undergraduate access to opera at Harvard. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

HCO presents a variety of performances, including annual staged operas at the Agassiz Theatre and recitals. Prior to the 2014 season, the company performed its annual operas in Dunster House. [4] [5]

Membership

Harvard College Opera is governed by a Board of Operators composed of approximately twenty students. The Board of Operators selects a shortlist of operas for the music and stage directors, also selected by the Board, to decide from for each production. In keeping with the company's mission of providing opportunities to undergraduates, the music and stage directors are always students at Harvard College.

The annual operas produced by HCO involve around 80 undergraduates in the cast, staff, and orchestra. [6] [7] To provide opera performance opportunities to students of a liberal arts institution, the cast is generally entirely composed of Harvard undergraduates, though the company has occasionally featured undergraduates at the Boston Conservatory and New England Conservatory, students at the Harvard graduate schools, and recent graduates of Harvard College.

Past productions

Notable alumni

Past members of the company include composers Benjamin P. Wenzelberg, Matthew Aucoin [8] and Joel Derfner, [9] baritone Davóne Tines, [10] mathematician and chessmaster Noam Elkies, [11] and businesswoman Randi Zuckerberg. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrizia Ciofi</span> Italian opera singer

Patrizia Ciofi is an Italian operatic coloratura soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Håkan Hagegård</span> Swedish operatic baritone

Nils Olov Håkan Hagegård is a Swedish operatic baritone. He also performs lieder and has held academic positions in the United States, Norway, and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilde Güden</span> Austrian opera singer

Hilde Güden was an Austrian soprano who was one of the most appreciated Straussian and Mozartian sopranos of her day. Her youthful and lively interpretations made her an ideal interpreter of roles such as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.

Sir Thomas Boaz Allen is an English operatic baritone. He is widely admired in the opera world for his voice, the versatility of his repertoire, and his acting—leading many to regard him as one of the best lyric baritones of the late 20th century. In October 2011, he was appointed Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding Bill Bryson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelika Kirchschlager</span> Austrian opera singer

Angelika Kirchschlager is an Austrian mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Berbié</span> French mezzo-soprano

Jane Berbié is a French mezzo-soprano particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Marsee</span> American mezzo-soprano

Susanne Marsee is an American mezzo-soprano of note, particularly acclaimed as a singing-actress.

Alessandro Corbelli is an Italian baritone opera singer. One of the world's pre-eminent singers specializing in Mozart and Rossini, Corbelli has sung in many major opera houses around the world and won admiration for his elegant singing style and sharp characterizations, especially in comic roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulo Szot</span>

Paulo Szot is a Brazilian operatic baritone singer and actor. He made his opera debut in 1997 and his international career has included performances with the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala di Milano, Opera de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Australia, Liceo de Barcelona, among many others. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Theatre World Award. In 2012 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a musical, and in 2014 was nominated for the MAC Award for best Celebrity Artist becoming the first Brazilian to receive such honors. In 2022, he originated the role of "Lance" in the hit Broadway musical & Juliet.

Susan Larson is an American soprano opera singer and author. Larson was born in New Rochelle, New York and she graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University in 1965. She received a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in 1969.

Frank Kelley is an American tenor who has performed in concert and in opera throughout North America and Europe. He holds music degrees from Florida State University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Kelley has appeared with the San Francisco Opera, Brussels Opera, Boston Opera Theater, Boston Lyric Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Opéra de Lyon, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), and the New Israeli Opera. The other ensembles he has sung with include Emmanuel Music, Tanglewood Festival, Ravinia Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Orchestra of St. Luke's, New Jersey Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Dallas Bach Society, Handel and Haydn Society, Cleveland Orchestra, PepsiCo SummerFare Festival, Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music Bach Festival, Next Wave Festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Company, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Mildred Allen was an American operatic soprano who had an active career during the 1950s and 1960s. She notably was a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera between 1957 and 1962. She later became a member of the voice faculty at Birmingham-Southern College where she taught from 1987–2009.

Castleward Opera was a Northern Ireland opera company which staged an annual opera festival at Castle Ward, a National Trust house near Strangford in County Down. It was founded in 1985 by Ian Urwin and Jack Smith, with performances taking place in a converted stable on the grounds of the castle. Following the cut to its core funding by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the festival saw its final opera performances in June 2009 and in September 2010 held two gala farewell concerts of highlights from the company's 25-year history. In January 2010, a new venture, supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, was proposed—Opera Company NI—which the Arts Council said would "incorporate the best resources from Castleward Opera and Opera Fringe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavla Vykopalová</span> Czech soprano (born 1972)

Pavla Vykopalová is a Czech operatic soprano.

James Oldfield is an English bass-baritone. In 2008 he was awarded a Sybil Tutton Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, and in 2010 he was given the Leonard Ingrams Award from Garsington Opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DuPage Opera Theatre</span>

The DuPage Opera Theatre (DOT) is one of three professional opera companies located in the Chicago area, along with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Opera Theater. Founded in 1977 as a resident, professional ensemble at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, DuPage Opera has mounted several hundred performances since its inception.

Andrew Shore, is an English operatic baritone.

Lou Galterio (born in

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Chevalier</span> American operatic soprano

Nicole Chevalier is an American operatic soprano, who debuted at the renowned Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2019. She was a member of the Komische Oper Berlin, and has been a freelance artist since 2017. Her repertoire includes bel canto as well as Mozart heroines such as Verdi's La Traviata, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart's Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Elettra in Idomeneo, and stretches till Aribert Reimann's Medea. In 2016, she was awarded the German National Theatre prize Der Faust for all four female characters in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Patricia Johnson is an English operatic mezzo-soprano. She made an international career and is known for her dramatic voice and her stage presence. She appeared in leading roles of the repertory, such as Carmen and Eboli, and created new roles, such as the Baronin Grünwiesel in Henze's Der junge Lord, and the Princess in Nicolas Nabokov's Love's Labour's Lost.

References

  1. "A night at the opera: HCO presents Mozart's 'Le nozze di Figaro' - The Tufts Daily". The Tufts Daily. 2017-02-06. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  2. STAFF, BMINT (2017-01-16). "Saying "I Do" and "Yes We Can" to Le Nozze". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  3. Thamel, Pete (2007-11-17). "Football Bruiser With Pavarotti Dream". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  4. Topczewska, Ola (4 February 2014). "“Così fan tutte” Updated and Repackaged at Agassiz". Harvard Crimson
  5. BWW News Desk. "Harvard College Opera Celebrates 25 Years of Performance with LE NOZZE DI FIGARO". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  6. BWW News Desk. "Harvard College Opera Presents Stravinsky's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS This Weekend" . Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  7. Valentino, Patrick (2017-02-04). "Timeless Figaro Impresses - The Boston Musical Intelligencer". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  8. "Musical wunderkind Aucoin is a star in ascendancy - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  9. Dunster House Opera Society. Gianni Schicchi and La Rondine 1995 Archived 2016-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Davóne Tines: Wide-Ranging Baritone Set to Make His Mark at S.F. Opera". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  11. Dunster House Opera Society. Don Giovanni 1998
  12. Dunster House Opera Society. The Bartered Bride 2001

Official website