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Florida Grand Opera

 

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Florida Grand Opera



 
 
Florida Grand Opera (FGO), is the seventh oldest opera company in the United States, currently in its 68th season. The company was founded as the Opera Guild of Greater Miami in 1941 by Dr. Arturo di Filippi and has grown under the successive leadership of the general directors Robert Herman and Robert M. Heuer.

Florida Grand Opera was created in 1994 through a merger between the Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild, Inc.






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Florida Grand Opera (FGO), is the seventh oldest opera company in the United States, currently in its 68th season. The company was founded as the Opera Guild of Greater Miami in 1941 by Dr. Arturo di Filippi and has grown under the successive leadership of the general directors Robert Herman and Robert M. Heuer.

Florida Grand Opera was created in 1994 through a merger between the Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, bringing together two important South Florida communities in support of one of the region’s most important cultural institutions. In Miami, its administration and operations are housed at Florida Grand Opera Doral Center while the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center is the location for the Opera’s activities in Fort Lauderdale.

At present, the company's General Director is Robert Heuer; its Music Director and Principal Conductor is Stewart Robertson
Stewart Robertson

Stewart Robertson is a Scottish conductor, born in Glasgow, Scotland. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Bristol University. He studied piano in London with Denis Matthews, and conducting with Otmar Suitner at the Mozarteum Academy and Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy....
. The chorus is under the direction of John Keene.

Company facilities, history, and activities

With a $15-million operating budget, the Opera employs 42 full-time and 250 part-time and seasonal personnel. Each of the past two seasons was attended by over 100,000 people at its new home, the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House located in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, commonly called The Arsht Center, is Miami's largest performing arts center and is located on Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami Miami, Florida, USA....
, previously known as the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, Miami's new premier performing arts center.

From 1951 until 2006,the company's performing home was the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami. The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale are now its two principal venues, with mainstage performances of each production given in both communities. Its education and outreach programs serve 40,000 people annually, and each year talented young singers come to Miami from throughout the country for training in its highly regarded Young Artist Studio.

The company has a long history of presenting internationally-renowned singers, set designers, directors and conductors. Its extensive repertoire embraces 400 years of opera, and includes standard works; lesser known works; modern works; and works by living composers.

In the past, the Company has played host to many of the world's leading opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti Italian orders of merit was an Italian opera tenor, who also crossed over into popular music. He was the most commercially successful tenor of all....
, who made his American debut with the then-Opera Guild of Greater Miami in Donizetti's
Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italy composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. Donizetti's most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor , and arguably his most immediately recognizable piece of music is the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore ....
 Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvatore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
 alongside Dame Joan Sutherland in February 1965, as well as Placido Domingo
Plácido Domingo

Jos? Pl?cido Domingo Embil Order of the British Empire , better known as Pl?cido Domingo, is a Spanish tenor, known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range....
, Birgit Nilsson
Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson was a Sweden dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register....
, Sherrill Milnes
Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Milnes is an United States operatic baritone most famous for his Giuseppe Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....
, Deborah Voigt, and James Morris
James Morris (opera singer)

James Morris is an American opera singer, boasting a stentorian bass voice, best known for his role as Wotan in performances of Richard Wagner's opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen....
.

The 2008-09 mainstage season will feature productions of Verdi's La traviata, Rossini's La Cenerentola, Delibes' Lakmé, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

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