Berkshire Opera Company
Encyclopedia
The Berkshire Opera Company was an American opera company located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
. The company was founded in 1985 by Rex Hearn and closed in 2009. Amongst the highlights of the company's history were:
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...
. The company was founded in 1985 by Rex Hearn and closed in 2009. Amongst the highlights of the company's history were:
- The 1998 production of Gian Carlo MenottiGian Carlo MenottiGian 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 ConsulThe ConsulThe Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the lead heroine Magda Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate,...
which was recorded on the Newport Classic label immediately following the final performance and was the first commercial recording ever made of the opera.
- The 1999 world premiere of Stephen PaulusStephen PaulusStephen Paulus is an American composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His best-known piece is his 1982 opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, one of several operas he has written for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted The New York Times to call him "a young man on the road...
' opera Summer in collaboration with the Boston Symphony and the Tanglewood Music FestivalTanglewood Music FestivalThe Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
. The opera, which is set in the Berkshires, is based on the novel of the same nameSummer (novel)Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England; Wharton was best known for her portrayals of upper class New York society...
by Edith WhartonEdith WhartonEdith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
.