Chelsea Opera - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

History

Chelsea Opera was founded in April, 2004 by Leonarda Priore and Lynne Hayden-Findlay, both singers, who sought to create more performance opportunities within the tri-state area. Musical direction since inception has been provided by Conductor Carmine Aufiero. In 2008, the company named Michael Megliola as Resident Lighting Designer, Sean Tribble as Resident Set Designer, and Garry Ianco as Orchestral Contractor.

Chelsea Opera’s performances to date have included: Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...

, Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...

, Cavalleria Rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...

, Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...

, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

, Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...

, The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory...

, The Scarf
The Scarf
The Scarf is a chamber opera in one act by composer Lee Hoiby. The work uses an English libretto by Harry Duncan that is based on the short story The Witch by Anton Chekhov. Composed in 1955, the opera premiered on June 20, 1958 at the very first Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy in a...

, and The Bear

The Bear (opera)

The Bear is the second of the two operas by William Walton, described in publication as an "Extravaganza in One Act". The libretto was by Paul Dehn, based on the play by Anton Chekhov of the same title .Walton composed the opera on commission from the Koussevitzsky Foundation, and dedicated the...

. The company’s roster now exceeds 250 artists who have performed principal roles, sung in the ensemble, been involved in design/production, and played in the Chelsea Opera Chamber Orchestra (“COCO”). An encore production of Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast...

was presented in November, 2009 and its first production of Le Nozze di Figaro was performed in June, 2010. Its November, 2010 production of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, based on the oral biography of Tom Philpott, garnered an outstanding review from Allan Kozinn

Allan Kozinn

-Biography:He received bachelor's degrees in music and journalism from Syracuse University in 1976. He began freelancing as a critic and music feature writer for the New York Times in 1977, and joined the paper's staff in 1991...

of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and Opera News
Opera News
Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...

. The next mainstage production – This is the rill speaking and his vocal chamber piece, Bermudas -- celebrates the 85th birthday of American composer Lee Hoiby

Lee Hoiby

Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...

. Plans for 2011-2012 include Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...

’s The Medium
The Medium
The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...

, celebrating this composer’s 100th birthday, and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...

, featuring tenor Daniel Rodriguez

Daniel Rodriguez

Daniel Rodríguez is an American operatic tenor from New York City. He became known as "The Singing Policeman" in his former work with the New York City Police Department, due to his role as one of the department's designated National Anthem singers...

singing his first Lt. Pinkerton. Each season now includes multiple offerings within its concert series, Chelsea Opera presents… , a series of thematic concerts featuring the company’s principal singers and guest artists.

Funding

Chelsea Opera is an associate member of OPERA America

Opera America

Opera America, officially OPERA America, is a service organization in North America promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera...

. The company has received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. Among their primary missions is to ensure adequate public funding for non-profit cultural organizations, both large and small, throughout the five boroughs.-External...

and the New York State Council on the Arts

New York State Council on the Arts

The New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...

as well as from several private foundations including The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, The Bettina Baruch Foundation, The Tow Foundation, The Banfi Vintners Foundation, The Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, The Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation, The NYU Community Fund and Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...

. Chelsea Opera is a WNYC Star Initiative recipient and was a recently awarded a media sponsorship from radio station WQXR. This will provide the company with on-air promotions on both New York City public radio stations, WNYC and WQXR. Chelsea Opera is also the recipient of a Google AdWords grant.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.