Center City Opera Theater (CCOT) is an opera company based in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. Founded in 1999, CCOT is the only professional opera company in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 whose mission is the creation of new opera works, guiding works from inception to stage through a series of workshops. CCOT performs at numerous intimate-setting venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia

Delaware Valley

The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...

 area, though its mainstage performance home is the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located on Broad Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc., an organization which also manages the Academy of Music in...

.

History

Since its founding in 1999 by General and Artistic Director Andrew Kurtz, CCOT has produced over four dozen operas which include newly commissioned works and traditional operas. Through its Young Artist Program, CCOT provides professional training and performance opportunities for emerging young opera professionals (singers, directors, designers, and instrumentalists). CCOT’s OPERAtunities in Education in-school program works with multiple partner schools in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

In September 2008, CCOT launched ConNEXTions: The Next Generation of Opera during the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, presenting the world premieres and workshops of new works. Creative Development Projects (CDP), directed by Albert Innaurato

Albert Innaurato

Albert Innaurato is an American playwright, theatre director, and writer.Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947. After graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Innaurato attended the Yale School of Drama...

, grew out of ConNEXTions and is an ongoing series which facilitates the production of new opera works through successive workshops, guiding a work from initial conception all the way to its world premiere.
Since 2010, in an attempt to cultivate broader opera audiences through intimate performances, CCOT has increasingly made use of site-specific venues, such as the Italian Market and the Comcast Center in Philadelphia.

Creative Development Projects

• Slaying the Dragon by Michael Ching and Ellen Frankel
  Ellen Frankel
  Ellen Frankel was the editor-in-chief of The Jewish Publication Society from 1991 until 2009, and also served as CEO of the JPS for 10 years. She retired in 2009 to pursue her own writing and scholarly projects, remaining with JPS as Editor Emerita.-Biography:Frankel received her B.A. from the...
  
   (workshops Jan. & Sept. 2011; world premiere Mar. 2012)
• Danse Russe by Paul Moravec
  Paul Moravec
  Paul Moravec is an American composer and a University Professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York...
  
   and Terry Teachout
  Terry Teachout
  Terry Teachout is a critic, biographer and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the chief culture critic of Commentary, and the author of "Sightings," a column about the arts in America that appears biweekly in the Friday Wall Street Journal...
  
   (workshops Jul. & Nov. 2010, Jan. 2011; world premiere Apr. 2011)
• Maren of Vardo by Jeff Myers and Royce Vavrek
  Royce Vavrek
  Royce Vavrek is a Canadian filmmaker, librettist, playwright and musical theatre writer known for the film From Sky and Soil, which was created as part of the Corus Young Filmmakers Initiative for broadcast on the W Network through a prize administered by the...
  
   (workshops Oct. 2010, Feb. 2011)
• Love/Hate by Jack Perla and Rob Bailis (workshops Sept. 2010; Sept. 2011)
• The Great Blondin by Ronald G. Vigue and Albert Innaurato (workshop Sept. 2009)

Commissioned World Premieres

• The Picture of Dorian Gray
  The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera)
  The Picture of Dorian Gray is an opera in two acts by the American composer Lowell Liebermann, from a libretto by the composer, based on the novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde.-Performance history:...
  
  (chamber orchestra version) by Lowell Liebermann
  Lowell Liebermann
  Lowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1...
  
  , June 2007: Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center.
• Danse Russe by Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout, April 2010; Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center.
• Slaying the Dragon by Michael Ching and Ellen Frankel, March 2012: Helen Corning Warden Theater, Academy of Vocal Arts
  Academy of Vocal Arts
  The Academy of Vocal Arts is a school dedicated to providing free higher education to aspiring opera singers. The school was founded in 1934 by Helen Corning Warden and is located at 1920 Spruce Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:...