Tulsa Opera
Tulsa Opera, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the 18th oldest opera company in the United States and is ranked among the top 10 regional opera companies in the nation.[citation needed] The company produces three opera productions each season performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
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[edit] 2011-2012 Season
The 2011-2012 season featured Rossini's The Barber of Seville, the Oklahoma premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, and Puccini's Madame Butterfly. [1]
[edit] History
In 1948, five Tulsans, Bess Gowans, Ralph and Ione Sassano, Mary Helen Markham and Beverly Bliss, formed the Tulsa Opera Club. On December 4th of that year, the organization performed Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, with local singers.[2]
In 1951, the name was changed from the Tulsa Opera Club to Tulsa Opera, Inc., the name under which it operates today. With the performance of Madama Butterfly in 1955, the company made the transition from using local amateur singers to professional singers in all major roles.[3] In 1977, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center was built. Since that time, nearly all operas have been presented in the Center's Chapman Music Hall. Former directors of Tulsa Opera include Carlo Moresco, Carol I. Crawford, Edward Purrington, Bernard Uzan, and Nicholas Muni.
Singers such as Licia Albanese, Carlo Bergonzi, Jussi Björling, Harolyn Blackwell, Judith Blegen, Stephanie Blythe, Joy Clements, Muriel Costa-Greenspon, Michael Devlin, Marisa Galvany, Greer Grimsley, Andrea Gruber, Jerry Hadley, Jerome Hines, Alfredo Kraus, Dorothy Kirsten, Peter Lindskoog, Chester Ludgin, Cornell MacNeil, James McCracken, John Macurdy, Sherrill Milnes, Anna Moffo, Herva Nelli, Maralin Niska, Luciano Pavarotti, Roberta Peters, Marguerite Piazza, Paul Plishka, Leontyne Price, Louis Quilico, Samuel Ramey, Sylvia Sass, Renata Scotto, Nancy Shade, Rita Shane, George Shirley, Beverly Sills, Dame Joan Sutherland, Harry Theyard, Norman Treigle, Tatiana Troyanos, Richard Tucker, Giuseppe Valdengo and Leonard Warren have performed with the company.
[edit] Trivia
- Pavarotti received a horse in compensation for his performance with the company.[4]
- Only a few weeks before her debut with the company, Sills requested the scheduled opera, Anna Bolena, be changed to I puritani. The company complied.
- The ghost of Enrico Caruso is said to haunt the Brady Theater. He is supposed to have caught a cold there which led to his later death by pleurisy.
- During the Great Depression, the first Tulsa Opera performances were held in Skelly Stadium. Admission for some seats was very affordable, allowing for people who normally couldn't attend have the opportunity to watch the performance. The heart of this was to bring joy to citizens who were hurting badly from the Depression.
[edit] Tulsa Youth Opera
In 1997, a tuition-free division of Tulsa Opera was created just for young singers ages 8-18. Tulsa Youth Opera, or TYO, participates either in one main stage production or a special concert each season.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}". tulsaopera.com. http://www.tulsaopera.com. Retrieved 30 January 2012. - ^ Tulsa Opera History at Archive.org, Archive.org, January 13, 2007
- ^ About Tulsa Opera, TulsaOpera.com, January 13, 2007
- ^ Brian Kellow (October 2001). "Growing Season: Tannhäuser in Tulsa?". Opera News. http://www.operanews.com/operanews/templates/content.aspx?id=11664.
- ^ "For students and young singers: Tulsa Youth Opera"
[edit] Bibliography
- Tulsa Opera Chronicles, by Jack A. Williams & Laven Sowell, 1992.
