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Dallas Opera

Dallas Opera is an American opera company founded in 1957 by Lawrence Kelly and Nicolà Rescigno. The opening performance was by the legendary Greek soprano Maria Callas, one of the most influential 20th-century opera singers, with music conducted by Nicolà Rescigno.

The opera company was first named Dallas Civic Opera. The company is reputed for providing many American opera singers to deliver their debut performances. Leading singers like Plácido Domingo, Waltraud Meier, Joan Sutherland, Magda Olivero, Gwyneth Jones, Montserrat Caballé, and Jon Vickers, along with Franco Zeffirelli, stage and film director, debuted from Dallas Opera.

Background and History

The founding members were working with the Lyric Opera of Chicago company when they planned to start Dallas Civic Opera. Kelly was the administrator, and Rescigno was an artistic director. The opera company has been crucial in shaping the cultural reputation of Dallas in the US and worldwide. It also played a role in the economic growth of the region.

Dallas Opera had its first commission in 1985 for Monkey See, Monkey Do, a one-act children's opera by Robert Xavier Rodriguez. The second commission was in 1987 in The Aspern Papers by Dominick Argento. The Aspern Papers opera had a world premiere that was aired on PBS's Great Performances series the next year.

 A few more popular commissions include Thérèse Raquin (based on a novel with the same title) by Tobias Picker, Moby Dick (an 1851 novel) by Jake Heggie in 2010, A Question of Light in 2011 Everest (one-act opera premiered in 2015) by Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer, Becoming Santa Claus by Mark Adamo, and Great Scott (2015) by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally.

The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies from 1980 is one of the best and most haunting chamber series with Nicole Paiement as the conductor. Paiement is the second woman conductor at the Dallas Opera and the principal guest conductor at the company.

The Dallas Opera has opened the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors to assist women conductors trying to make it big in the industry. They have special programs to train and fine-tune them to become successful in their careers. Paiement is one of the faculty at the institute, with other notable conductors like Marin Alsop, Ian Robertson, Zizi Mueller, Carol Lazier, etc., taking the responsibility to train women music administrators.