Dallas Opera
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The Dallas Opera is an opera company located in Dallas, Texas (USA). It was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic Opera by Laurence Kelly and Nicola Rescigno, both of whom had been active with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first as administrator, the second as artistic director.
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[edit] The company's artistic successes
Maria Callas opened the Civic Opera's first season with an inaugural recital conducted by Rescigno. She returned the following year to perform in La traviata in a production by Franco Zeffirelli and in Medea, directed by the Greek director, Alexis Minotis, two of her infrequent performances in the United States. According to John Ardoin, the long-time music critic for The Dallas Morning News, in his book, The Callas Legacy, she sang in Lucia di Lammermoor in the 1958 season. Callas' rehearsal, with Resigno conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, on 20th November 1957 was recorded, as was her performance in Medea on 6th November 1958.
Of the company's successes, one writer notes that "the Dallas Opera may have been just beginning, but what they accomplished was of the highest standard"[1], while, in an interview, John Ardoin outlines the role of Laurence Kelly:
- “Everything must ride or fall on the taste of one man…. As it did with Kelly and his company. He went through all kinds of crap for 10 months out of the year -- mean fund-raising and playing social games and all -- to do what he loved the most for two months out of the year. And Kelly didn't care if you did Aida, or Rigoletto, or Carmen -- it just had to be the best Aida, and Rigoletto, and Carmen. He would agonize over it, and think it out. Nothing was ever casual with him, in the casting or the productions. That's not to say he didn't make mistake. But, ultimately, it was his taste, and his vision, and his commitment that did the trick"[2]. .
Many singers have made their American debut in Dallas, such as Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Gwyneth Jones, Waltraud Meier, Magda Olivero, Joan Sutherland, and Jon Vickers. Designer/director Franco Zeffirelli also made his US debut there. Dallas also has helped launch the careers of such American singers as Renée Fleming, Diana Soviero, and Ruth Ann Swenson.
The Dallas Opera commissioned a new American work, Dominick Argento’s The Aspern Papers and gave its world premiere, which was nationally broadcast to four million viewers on PBS's “Great Performances” series in 1988.
The 2006/2007 Season will mark the company's 50th Anniversary. The season will include five productions never staged by the company and one audience favorite.
[edit] Administration
The Music Director of the Dallas Opera is the Englishman Graeme Jenkins, who has occupied the post since 1994.
During General Director Anthony Whitworth-Jones' two-year tenure, 2001 to 2003, Dallas Opera's $11.8 million budget allowed for the expansion of the audience into the tens of thousands, including more than 30,000 children. His successor, Karen Stone, was appointed in mid-2003 and she is the fifth General Director of the company. Having collaborated with the Opera's Music Director, Graeme Jenkins, at the Cologne Opera in Germany, Ms. Stone has firsthand knowledge of the business, rising from singer to director to administrator. She came to Dallas from Graz, Austria, where she had been the general manager of the Theaters of Graz since 2000.
[edit] Future plans
The Dallas Opera is scheduled to open the 2009-2010 Season in the new Winspear Opera House, a part of the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts where it will be the resident company.
[edit] References
- ^ Galatopoulos, Stelios, Maria Callas, Sacred Monster, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998, ISBN 0-684-85985-8
- ^ James Jorden interview on The Parterre Box web site, November 2005
- Ardoin, John, The Callas Legacy, Old Tappan, New Jersey: Scribner and Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-684-19306-X
- Ardoin, John and Fitzgerald, Gerald, Callas: The Art and the Life, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974, ISBN 0-03-011486-1
- Cantrell, Scott, "And That Spells Dallas", Opera News, November 2006 (Account of 50th Anniversary season under General Director, Karen Stone)
- Davis, Ronald L, (with foreword by) Miller, Henry S, Jr., La Scala West: The Dallas Opera Under Kelly and Rescigno, University Park, Texas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2000
