Pennsylvania Opera Theater

Last updated

The Pennsylvania Opera Theater (TPOT) was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1975 by Barbara Silverstein, the company presented an annual season of opera until it closed due to financial reasons in 1993. The company was dedicated to presenting new and more rarely performed works in the English language. Most of the company's performances were staged at the Merriam Theater. Silverstein served as the company's Artistic Director during its 18-year history. [1]

The POT's first performance was on May 22, 1976 with a production of Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor . [2] New works staged by the company included Margaret Garwood's Rappaccini's Daughter (1983), Vincent Persichetti's The Sibyl (1985) and David Ives and Greg Pliska's The Secret Garden (1991). [3] [4] [5] In 1982 the company presented the United States premiere of Haydn's Orlando paladino with tenor John Gilmore in the title role. [6] Other rarely performed works staged by the company included Argento's Postcard from Morocco (1977), Benjamin Britten's version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1978), Francesco Cavalli's Ormindo (1979), Offenbach's La belle Hélène (1980), Mark Bucci's Sweet Betsy From Pike (1980), David Amram's Twelfth Night (1981), Rossini's Le comte Ory (1981), Donizetti's Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo (1982), Weil's The Threepenny Opera (1984), Britten's The Turn of the Screw (1987), Henry Purcell's The Fairy-Queen (1988), and Robert Ward's The Crucible (1989). [2] [7] The company's final performance was of Mozart's Così fan tutte on May 14, 1993 at the Merriam Theater with Jennifer Jones as Fiordiligi, Janine Hawley as Dorabella, Matthew Lau as Guglielmo, Robert Baker as Ferrando, Sara Seglem as Despina, and Robert Holden as Don Alfonso. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theater an der Wien</span> Historic building in Vienna, Austria

The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music. Since 2006, it has served primarily as an opera house, hosting its own company.

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

The Trocadero Theatre is a historic theater located in Chinatown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It offered musical comedies, vaudeville, opera, and burlesque. The Trocadero Theatre was refurbished for use as an art house cinema and fine arts theatre in 1970s, and by the 1990s had become an iconic venue for rock and punk concerts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academy of Music (Philadelphia)</span>

The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its location is between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City.

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

Garsington Opera is an annual summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. The Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert are its two resident orchestras. For 21 years it was held in the gardens of Ingrams's home at Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire. Since 2011 the festival is held in Wormsley Park, the home of the Getty family near Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire, England. After Ingrams's death in 2005 Anthony Whitworth-Jones became its General Director until 2013 when Douglas Boyd became artistic director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera Philadelphia</span> American opera company

Opera Philadelphia is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces one festival in September and additional operas in the spring season, encompassing works from the 17th through the 21st century. The famed Academy of Music, the oldest opera house to be continuously in use for its original purpose within the United States, is currently the venue for three of the company's performances. The company is led by David Devan, who was appointed general director in 2011.

Jennifer Vyvyan was a British classical soprano who had an active international career in operas, concerts, and recitals from 1948 up until her death in 1974. She possessed a beautifully clear, steady voice with considerable flexibility in florid music. She was praised for her subtle phrasing and her dramatic gifts enabled her to create vivid individual portrayals. Although she sang a broad repertoire, she is particularly remembered for her association with the works of Benjamin Britten; notably singing roles created for her in the world premieres of several of his operas with the English Opera Group.

<i>Roland</i> (Lully) Opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully

Roland is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault. It was first performed on January 8, 1685, at the Palace of Versailles by the Académie Royale de Musique and later, beginning on March 8, 1685, at the company's public theatre in Paris, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. The story is derived from Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso. The opera takes the form of a tragédie en musique with an allegorical prologue and five acts.

<i>Orlando paladino</i> Opera by Joseph Haydn

Orlando paladino, Hob. 28/11, is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn which was first performed at Eszterháza on 6 December 1782. The libretto by Nunziato Porta is based on another libretto, Le pazzie d'Orlando, by Carlo Francesco Badini, itself inspired by Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso. The opera was described as a dramma eroicomico and the plot mixes heroic and comic elements. It was Haydn's most popular opera during his lifetime. While in Prague, Mozart conducted a few performances of the opera. The Pennsylvania Opera Theater presented the United States premiere of the work at the Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia, in March 1982 with John Gilmore in the title role.

Gotham Chamber Opera was a professional opera company located in New York City. The company was founded in 2000 under the name of the Henry Street Chamber Opera by Artistic Director Neal Goren and specialized in producing rarely performed chamber operas from the Baroque era to the present. In 2003, it changed its name to the Gotham Chamber Opera (GCO) after incorporating as an independent 501(c)(3) organization. Its Executive Director was Edward Barnes, who took over from David Bennett. It closed in 2015.

Norma Burrowes is an Irish coloratura soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.

James Maddalena is an American baritone who is chiefly associated with contemporary American opera. He gained international recognition in 1987 when he originated the role of Richard Nixon at the premiere of John Adams's opera Nixon in China at Houston. He has since reprised the role on many occasions, and recorded it for the Nonesuch Records release of the opera in 1987. In addition to Maddelena's role as Nixon, he has originated two other Adams characters: the Captain in The Death of Klinghoffer and Jack Hubbard in Doctor Atomic. He has also performed roles in the premieres of operas by Paul Moravec and Stewart Wallace among other American composers.

Gerrianne Raphael is an American stage, screen, and voice-over actress. Though much of her career has been spent in the theatre, she is perhaps best known for her major role as the voice of Pumyra in ThunderCats.

Grethe Barrett Holby is an American theatre producer, stage director, choreographer, and dramaturge best known for her work in opera. Holby is noted as the founder of American Opera Projects, where she served as Artistic Director from 1988 until 2001. She currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of Family Opera Initiative which she founded in 1995, and Ardea Arts, Inc., which she founded in 2006. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded Holby a 2006 Creative Arts Residency The Bellagio Center.

New Chamber Opera is a professional opera company located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It specialises in the fields of chamber opera and music theatre, and produces rarely performed works from the Baroque era to the present. It is a member of the Opera and Music Theatre Forum. New Chamber Opera has received financial support from the Arts Council of Great Britain and The National Lottery.

Beverly Hoch is an American coloratura soprano and music educator who has had an active performance career in operas, concerts, and on recordings since the late 1970s. She has been teaching at Texas Woman's University since 2007.

Margaret Garwood was an American composer who is best known for her operas.

John Gilmore was an American operatic tenor. His voice is preserved on several recordings made for the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts and on the television program Live from the Metropolitan Opera.

The Chamber Opera Theater of New York was an American opera company located in New York City that operated from 1980–1986. The company mainly staged its works at the Marymount Manhattan Theater, but occasionally used other venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Music critic Allan Kozinn stated in The New York Times that the company "built a reputation for intimately staged productions, mostly of works that are rarely heard in the larger houses; and earned both a steady following and enthusiastic reviews."

Kathryn Day is an American opera singer who has had an active international career spanning five decades. She began her career as a leading soprano under the name Kathryn Bouleyn in the 1970s and 1980s with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. With the latter institution she created the role of Cora in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982).

References

  1. Lesley Valdes (July 30, 1993). "Curtain To Close On Operas The Pa. Opera Theater Canceled 3 Scheduled Productions. Financial Problems Were Blamed". The Philadelphia Inquirer .
  2. 1 2 3 Free Library of Philadelphia: Folder: Pennsylvania Opera Theater
  3. Edward Rothstein (May 14, 1983). "Opera: 'Rappaccini' Opens". The New York Times .
  4. Will Crutchfield (April 21, 1985). "Opera: Premiere Of Persichetti Work". The New York Times .
  5. Lesley Valdes (February 25, 1991). "'The Secret Garden', New Opera From Tpot". The Philadelphia Inquirer .
  6. John Rockwell (March 18, 1982). "Opera: PennsylvaniansI Give Haydn's 'Orlando Paladino'". The New York Times .
  7. Bernard Holland (February 28, 1988). "Opera: 'Fairy Queen,' in Philadelphia". The New York Times .