The Baltimore Opera Company
(BOC
) was an opera company in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., based at the Baltimore Lyric Opera House. On March 12, 2009, the 58-year-old opera company announced plans to pursue Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. [1]
On December 10, 2008, the Baltimore Opera Company had filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Cited as reasons were "dwindling ticket sales and contributions". [2] Productions of Gioachino Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia
and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess
, scheduled for March and May, 2009 respectively, were canceled., and ticket-holders did not receive refunds. [3]
The former home of the now defunct BOC, the Lyric Opera House, is a music venue modeled after the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. The building was inaugurated on October 31, 1894, with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured soloist. Not long after, Enrico Caruso appeared there with the Metropolitan Opera in a performance of Flotow's Martha
. One former opera singer for the Baltimore Opera is Mike Rowe, now well known as the television host of Dirty Jobs on The Discovery Channel.
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History
In 1950, building on earlier amateur efforts, Baltimore Opera was formally established as the
Baltimore Civic Opera Company
, with the famous American
soprano Rosa Ponselle as its first
artistic director. In 1952, Ponselle brought
Beverly Sills to Baltimore for a production of
Manon
.
In 1960, the company embarked upon a program of modernization, attracting private funding to be able to hire professional set designers and diversity its repertoire.
In 1963, the
Ford Foundation made a generous contribution that allowed the Company to stabilize a format of three operas a season and to hire a full time Production Manager. In subsequent years, it staged notable productions of such operas as
Der Rosenkavalier
, in 1962, with conductor
Kurt Adler;
Rigoletto
, in 1964, with
Sherrill Milnes;
Lucia di Lammermoor
with
Anna Moffo;
Turandot
, in 1966, with
Birgit Nilsson and
Teresa Stratas; and
The Tales of Hoffmann
in 1967 with Sills,
Plácido Domingo, and
Norman Treigle.
In 1970, the name Baltimore Civic Opera Company was changed to Baltimore Opera Company. The word "civic" denoted amateurism, a term deemed not anymore applicable to the Company's offerings.
In 1976, for the occasion of the
American Bicentennial, the Company appropriately commissioned its first work, opera
Inês de Castro
, composed by
Thomas Pasatieri with a libretto by
Bernard Stambler. This work was a major American operatic event and featured a cast that included
Richard Stilwell,
James Morris, and
Lili Chookasian, with staging by
Tito Capobianco.
In 1993, Baltimore Opera inaugurated its Summer Aria Series, dedicated to works by American composers.
In 1994, a sizable grant was awarded to the Baltimore Opera Company by the National Arts Stabilization Fund in order to give the Company complete financial stability.
In the 1994/1995 season, the BOC added an additional subscription performance for each opera.
The company used to mount four productions a year. For example, the 2007/2008 season consisted of
Verdi's La forza del destino
,
Donizetti's Maria Stuarda
,
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette
, and
Puccini's Madama Butterfly
.
References
- Smith, Tim. "Baltimore Opera Company to close," ''The Baltimore Sun'', Friday, March 13, 2009.
- Baltimore Opera seeks Chapter 11 protection
- "Letter To Our Patrons" The Baltimore Opera Company Web Page, December 10, 2008