The Kentucky Opera is an American opera company based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is resident at the Brown Theatre, as part of Kentucky Performing Arts. The Louisville Orchestra is the accompanying orchestra for the company.
Moritz von Bomhard founded the company in 1952 as the State Opera of Kentucky. The company performed in the Columbia Auditorium until 1964, when they moved to the Macauley Theater (now called the Brown Theatre). Bomhard served as general director of the company until his 1982 retirement. Thomson Smillie succeeded Bomhard as general director, and during his tenure, the company began to give some performances at Whitney Hall in 1984. Smillie was general director until 1997. In 1998, Deborah Sandler became the company's general director. During her tenure, the company moved all of its productions to Whitney Hall.
In January 2006, the company announced David Roth as its next general director. Roth served in the post until his July 2015 death in a car accident. [1] Following interim leadership by William Blodgett, in 2016, Ian Derrer became the company's general director. [2] [3] Barbara Lynne Jamison was named general director in 2018. [4]
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, attended by more than 294,000 people.
The Dallas Opera is an American opera company located in Dallas, Texas. The company performs at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, one venue of the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located 7 miles (11 km) north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the Opera Association of New Mexico in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newly acquired former guest ranch of 199 acres (0.81 km2).
The Utah Symphony is an American orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The orchestra's principal venue is Abravanel Hall. In addition to its Salt Lake City subscription concerts, the orchestra travels around the Intermountain West serving communities throughout Utah. The orchestra accompanies the Utah Opera in four productions per year at Salt Lake's Capitol Theatre. In addition, the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera have a summer residency at the Deer Valley Music Festival, located in Park City, Utah. The orchestra receives funding from the Utah State Legislature for educational concerts. The Symphony has a division in Utah Valley that is based out of the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor.
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. The company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English translation or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with surtitles.
The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney (1904–1986) and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville. The Louisville Orchestra employs salaried musicians, and offers a wide variety of concert series to the community, including classical programs featuring international guest artists, pops performances, and education and family concerts. In 1942 the orchestra adopted the name of the former Louisville Philharmonic Society, which it kept until 1977 before reverting to its original name. The orchestra is the resident performing group for the Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera, and presents several concerts across the Kentucky/Indiana area.
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Columbus, Ohio. The oldest performing arts organization in the city, its home is the Ohio Theatre. The orchestra's current Executive Director is Denise Rehg. Rossen Milanov is the orchestra's music director.
Robert "Bob" Bernhardt is an American conductor. He is currently in his 24th season as Principal Pops Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, and in his 10th season as Music Director Emeritus and Principal Pops Conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. In 2015, Bob Bernhardt was named Principal Pops Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony. He is also Artist-in-Residence at Lee University since 2012. For most of the 1980s, he was also associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra.
Wexford Festival Opera is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in south-eastern Ireland during the months of October and November.
The performing arts community in Louisville, Kentucky is undergoing a renaissance. The Kentucky Center, dedicated in 1983, located in the downtown hotel and entertainment district, is a premiere performing arts center. It features a variety of plays and concerts, and is the performance home of the Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Broadway Across America - Louisville, Music Theatre Louisville, Stage One, KentuckyShow! and the Kentucky Opera, which is the twelfth oldest opera in the United States. The center also manages the historic W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre, which opened in 1925 and is patterned after New York's acclaimed Music Box Theatre.
Alessandro Siciliani is an Italian conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is also a composer of symphonic music. Siciliani was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Ambra and Francesco Siciliani, the celebrated opera impresario. Siciliani currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, where he was the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 2004.
Robert Sutton Whitney was an American conductor and composer. He was a student of Leo Sowerby.
The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, located in Louisville and currently branded as The Kentucky Center, is a major performing arts center in Kentucky. It one of three venues owned by Kentucky Performing Arts. Tenants include Broadway Across America, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, and StageOne Family Theatre.
Actors Theatre of Louisville is a non-profit performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Actors Theatre was founded in 1964 following the merging of two local companies, Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville, operated by Louisville natives Ewel Cornett and Richard Block. Designated as the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974, the theatre has been called one of America's most consistently innovative professional theatre companies, with an annual attendance of 150,000.
Louisville Chorus, established 1939 in Louisville, Kentucky, is the longest-thriving most frequently performing choral arts agency in Kentuckiana and neighboring states—also exceeding the longevity of opera, ballet, and theatre in the area.
David Roth was an American opera director and stage director. He was the General Director of the Kentucky Opera from 2006 to 2015.
Anthony Roth Costanzo is an American countertenor, actor, and producer who has led performances at opera companies around the world. Beginning his career in musical theatre at the age of 11, he has since been featured at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Glyndebourne Opera Festival, as well as in concert with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, he won first place at Plácido Domingo's international opera competition Operalia and, in 2009, was a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. As an actor, he has performed in several films, including the Merchant Ivory film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. As a producer and curator, he has created shows for National Sawdust, Opera Philadelphia, the Philharmonia Baroque, Princeton University, WQXR, The State Theater in Salzburg, MasterVoices, and Kabuki-za Tokyo. Costanzo is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has returned to teach, and he received his master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
The Transposed Heads is an opera in one act with six scenes composed by Peggy Glanville-Hicks. She also wrote the libretto which was adapted from Lowe-Porter's English translation of Thomas Mann's novella, Die vertauschten Köpfe. It was a commission from the Louisville Philharmonic Society and premiered on 3 April 1954 at the Columbia Auditorium in Louisville, Kentucky.
Moritz von Bomhard was a German-born conductor, opera producer, composer, and pianist. Educated in Leipzig, he settled in the United States in 1935 and became an American citizen in 1942. Bomhard was the founder of Kentucky Opera which he managed and conducted from its inception in 1952 until his retirement in 1982.