Michigan Opera Theatre
Encyclopedia
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
's principal opera company. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House
Detroit Opera House
The Detroit Opera House is an opera house located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the venue for all Michigan Opera Theatre productions and it hosts a variety of other events. It opened on January 22, 1922....
. Each year it presents an opera and dance season. The company usually presents five operas in their original language with English supertitles and hosts five dance companies with touring repertoire. It also presents musical theatre performances. The company has an orchestra, chorus, children's chorus and extensive dance and arts education outreach programs. In 2005 MOT won a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, Access to Artistic Excellence grant to support its staging of the world premiere of Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner (opera)
Margaret Garner is an American opera loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner. It was co-commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. The music was composed by Richard Danielpour with a libretto in English by...
.
History
Michigan Opera Theatre began as the educational outreach arm, Overture to Opera (OTO), of the Detroit Grand Opera Association, the organization responsible for the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
's visits to Detroit. In 1963, MOT's Founder and General Director, David DiChiera
David DiChiera
David DiChiera is an American composer and founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre.-Career:...
took over the program, then in its third year. OTO first presented opera to the public as a collection of scenes and acts. It did not produce its first full-length production until 1970, with the staging of The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
. Overture to Opera officially became Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971 after it established a board of trustees, signifying its transformation into a professional opera company. 1977 marked the founding of MOT's Department of Community Programs by Karen VanderKloot DiChiera. The company became known for it casting which often featured a blend of established artists as well as young-up-and-coming American opera singers from a diversity of backgrounds, a tradition that continues to this day. The company was among the first to stage Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
in 1975 as well as Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
's opera Treemonisha
Treemonisha
Treemonisha is an opera composed by the famed African-American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera"...
in 1983. In 2005 the company staged the world premiere of Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...
's Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner (opera)
Margaret Garner is an American opera loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner. It was co-commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. The music was composed by Richard Danielpour with a libretto in English by...
, based on Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
's novel Beloved
Beloved (novel)
Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, published in 1987. Set in 1873 just after the American Civil War , it is based on the story of the African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state...
. MOT also established an international reputation for the staging of rarely performed operas such as the North American premiere of Armenian composer, Armen Tigranian
Armen Tigranian
Armen Tigranian was an Armenian music composer and conductor. His best-known works were two national operas, Anoush and Davit Bek ; the latter of which premiered only months before his death and was his final composition...
's, Anoush in 1981, Polish composer, Karol Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
's King Roger
King Roger
King Roger is an opera by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski set to a libretto by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. It was first performed on 19 June 1926 in Warsaw, Poland...
in 1991, and the American premiere of Stanisław Moniuszko
Stanisław Moniuszko
Stanisław Moniuszko was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. His output includes many songs and operas, and his musical style is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
's The Haunted Castle
The Haunted Manor
The Haunted Manor is an opera in four acts composed by Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko in 1861–1864. The libretto was written by Jan Chęciński...
in 1982. In 1989 the decision was made to purchase MOT's current home, the Detroit Opera House Originally called the Capital Theatre, the building, designed by C. Howard Crane
C. Howard Crane
Charles Howard Crane was an American architect.Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane established a practice in Detroit, Michigan early in the 20th Century. Like Thomas W. Lamb and John Eberson, Crane specialized in the design of movie palaces in North American...
, was in need of extensive restoration. The company eventually gained enough money to purchase the entire block encompassing the neighboring Roberts Fur building, which the company demolished in 1993 to make way for the 75000 square feet (6,967.7 m²) stage house. The monumental task which became known as "The Detroit Opera House Project" took approximately 7 years to complete and was supported by local individuals, corporations, foundations and unions. Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
was also a major contributor to the campaign, bringing the attention of the public to the project at large by promising to sing at the opening of the new opera house, donating large amounts of money to the cause, and by making various appearances around Detroit in performances designed to raise money for the project. In April 1996, MOT celebrated the opening of its new home with a Gala event which received international coverage. Among the guests at the Gala were opera stars Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, Luciano Pavarotti, Irina Mishura, Helen Donath
Helen Donath
Helen Jeanette Donath is an American soprano with a career spanning fifty years.- Biography :She was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and studied at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and with Paola Novikova in New York....
, Marcello Giordani
Marcello Giordani
Marcello Giordani is an Italian operatic tenor who has sung leading roles in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. He has had a distinguished association with the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he has sung in over 170 performances since his debut there in 1993...
, Gregg Baker, Alessandra Marc
Alessandra Marc
Alessandra Marc is an award-winning American dramatic soprano who has appeared at many of the world's finest opera houses and orchestras...
, and Elizabeth Parcells
Elizabeth Parcells
Elizabeth Parcells was an American coloratura soprano. In the USA, she sang at the Michigan Opera Theater, the Boston Lyric Opera and The Washington Opera, among others....
, conductor Steven Mercurio, and actor Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
. The evening also featured a Fanfare for the Detroit Opera House by American composer William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
which had been especially commissioned for the Gala. In 1996 MOT also added a permanent dance season to its reportoire with performances by the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
and the Cleveland San Jose Ballet.
Venues
Several of Detroit's performing arts venues have been home to Michigan Opera Theatre. With the move to the Detroit Music Hall in 1971 MOT is credited with helping to regenerate Detroit's Entertainment District. Still operating as Overture to Opera the company saved the Music Hall from demolition in 1971 and staged its first season there with productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
and Puccini's La rondine
La rondine
La rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
. Besides the Music Hall, MOT has occupied the Detroit Masonic Temple
Detroit Masonic Temple
The Detroit Masonic Temple is the world's largest Masonic Temple. Located in the Cass Corridor of Detroit, Michigan, at 500 Temple Street, the building serves as a home to various masonic organizations including the York Rite Sovereign College of North America. The Masonic Temple Theatre is a venue...
theatre, and the Fisher Theatre. In the 1984 spring season the company moved to the Masonic Temple in order to accommodate larger audiences and bigger productions. Its first production at the Masonic Temple was Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena and Alessandro Pepoli's Anna Bolena, both telling of the life of Anne Boleyn...
, starring Joan Sutherland. The production also featured the American Midwest premiere of English surtitles
Surtitles
Surtitles, also known as supertitles, are translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from the French language "sur", meaning "over" or "on", and the English language word...
. In 1985 the company moved to The Fisher Theatre for its autumn season and staged West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
which received an extended run and became one of Michigan Opera Theatres top grossing productions.
Arts education and outreach
Michigan Opera Theatre's Department of Community Programs was founded by Karen Vanderkloot DiChiera in 1977. Since then, it has established The Joyce H. Cohn Apprentice Award Fund to support MOT's Young Artist Apprentice Program. It has also been awarded the Success in Education Award by Opera AmericaOpera America
Opera America, officially OPERA America, is a service organization in North America promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera...
. MOT's Arts Education and Outreach program, which is a division of MOT's Department of Community programs works with students in local schools. The department also host Learning at the Opera House which offers classes, and workshops for children and adults during the summer months. The department also offers touring programs to local schools, churches and community groups. MOT's Department of Community programs has also premiered many operas. They include Vigilence, Pete, The Pirate, and Nanabush which were composed by Karen V. DiChiera and Summer Snow which was composed by Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
The Margo V. Cohen Center for Dance
The Margo V. Cohen Center for Dance was founded in 2001 and is run by Dr. Carol Halsted the Director of Dance. The department which is also a component of MOT's community outreach programming hosts the company's Dance Film series and the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive program. The center also hosts year-round dance classes for beginning to advanced dance students. Dance auditions are also held at the center.The Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library
The Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library is the official library and archive for Michigan Opera Theatre. It specializes in research materials specific to dance, opera and MOT's 40-year history. The library was made possible in 2006 with a gift from Robert and Maggie Allesee. The library and archive center carries books, scores, CDs, videos and hundreds of unique items such as photos and performance reviews from MOT's productions. The Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library's catalogue was recently made available for the public to access online through a unique partnership with Wayne State UniversityWayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
's School of Library and Information Science.
Opera/Musicals
- Rossini's The Barber of SevilleThe Barber of SevilleThe Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
1970 Overture to Opera's first full length production - MOT's 1979 production of The Most Happy FellaThe Most Happy FellaThe Most Happy Fella is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard...
which traveled to BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and received rave reviews - Donizetti's Anna Bolena in 1984 featuring Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, it was the first appearance in the Midwest of Surtitle translations
- 1985's West Side Story received an extended run and became one of MOT's top grossing productions
- Puccini's TurandotTurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
in 1986 which featured Martina ArroyoMartina ArroyoMartina Arroyo is an operatic soprano of Puerto Rican and African-American descent who had a major international opera career during the 1960s through the 1980s...
and Ghena DimitrovaGhena DimitrovaGhena Dimitrova was a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Her voice was known for its power and extension used in operatic roles such as Turandot in a career spanning four decades.-Early career:... - Luciano Pavarotti at Joe Louis ArenaJoe Louis ArenaJoe Louis Arena, nicknamed The Joe and JLA is a hockey arena located at 600 Civic Center Drive in Detroit, Michigan. It is the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. Completed in 1979 at a cost of $57 million, Joe Louis Arena is named after boxer and former heavyweight...
in 1988 - Luciano Pavarotti at The Detroit Opera House Gala Opening in 1996
- Puccini's La bohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
first production on the Detroit Opera House stage spring 1996 - Bizet's CarmenCarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
one of the company's greatest selling operas featuring Irina Mishura - Massenet's WertherWertherWerther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
1999 Italian Tenor, Andrea BocelliAndrea BocelliAndrea Bocelli, is an Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist. Born with poor eyesight, he became blind at the age of twelve following a soccer accident....
's North American opera debut, with American mezzo Denyce GravesDenyce GravesDenyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...
, the production was webcastWebcastA webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
for all the world to see - The Three TenorsThe Three TenorsThe Three Tenors is a name given to the Spanish singers Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and the Italian singer Luciano Pavarotti who sang in concert under this banner during the 1990s and early 2000s. The trio began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla, in...
1999 at Tiger Stadium with Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido DomingoPlácido DomingoPlácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
and José CarrerasJosé CarrerasJosep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini... - Luciano Pavarotti at the Verdi Festival 2000
- Luciano Pavarotti in his last Michigan performance at the PalaceThe PalaceThe Palace is a British drama television series that aired on ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of the death of King James III and the succession of his 24-year-old son, Richard...
in 2003 - Danielpour's Margaret Garner 2005 World Premiere, composed by Grammy Award winner Richard Danielpour, with libretto by Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning author Toni Morrison - DiChiera's CyranoCyranoCyrano can refer to:In drama:* Cyrano , 1913 opera by Walter Damrosch* Cyrano, a 1958 musical by David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr.* Cyrano , 1973 musical with music by Michael J...
2007 World Premiere, composed by MOT's General Director Dr. David DiChiera, Libretto by Bernard Uzan
Dance
- 1989-90 Season Swan LakeSwan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
Cleveland Ballet, first time dance appeared in the season - 1991-92 MOT produces its first ballet, choreography by Iacob Lascu
- 1996 American Ballet Theatre and Cleveland San Jose Ballet, MOT's first dance session
- 1998 Alvin AileyAlvin AileyAlvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
MOT debut - 1999 Paul Taylor Dance CompanyPaul Taylor Dance CompanyPaul Taylor Dance Company, is a contemporary dance company, formed by Paul Taylor, an American choreographer of the 20th century. One of the early touring companies of American modern dance, the Company has "performed in more than 500 cities in 62 countries" and still spends more than half of each...
MOT debut - 2001 Joffrey BalletJoffrey BalletThe Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
MOT debut - 2002 Ballet Internationale The NutcrackerThe NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
the beginning of a tradition - 2002-2003 Bolshoi BalletBolshoi BalletThe Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
- The Kirov Ballet
- 2003 Dance Theatre of HarlemDance Theatre of HarlemDance Theatre of Harlem is a ballet company and school of the allied arts founded in Harlem, New York City, USA in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook...
- 2003 Les Ballets AfricainsLes Ballets AfricainsLes Ballets Africains is a the national dance company of Guineaand is based in Conakry, Guinea, Africa.Although the name might suggest the idea of European "ballet" to English speakers, the focus of the company is actually to promote traditional African dance and culture.-History:Founded in Paris...
- 2004 North Carolina Dance Theatre A Streetcar Named DesireA Streetcar Named Desire (play)A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
- 2005-2006 Savion GloverSavion GloverSavion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
- 2007 The Grand Rapids Ballet Where The Wild Things AreWhere The Wild Things AreWhere the Wild Things Are is a 1963 children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 , a 1980 opera, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film...
Notable artists
Among the notable artists who have sung at MOT early in their careers are: Detroit-born Maria EwingMaria Ewing
Maria Louise Ewing is an American opera singer who has sung both soprano and mezzo soprano roles. She is noted as much for her acting as her singing.-Life and career:...
who sang in the 1970 The Barber of Seville production; Leona Mitchell
Leona Mitchell
Leona Mitchell , is an African-American and Chickasaw operatic soprano and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee....
, who sang Bess in the company's 1975 production of Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
; Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Battle , is an African-American operatic soprano known for her agile and light voice and her silvery, pure tone. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid 1970s. She made her opera debut in...
, whose 1975 performance as Rosina in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
marked her operatic debut; Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...
, who created the role of Catherine Sloper in MOT's world premiere staging of Washington Square
Washington Square (novel)
Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father...
in 1976. Other notable artists include The Metropolitan Opera's Jerome Hines
Jerome Hines
The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...
, a bass, who in 1974 sang the title role of Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
; Nicole Cabell
Nicole Cabell
Nicole Cabell , is an American opera singer. She is presently best known as the 2005 winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition....
who sang Musetta in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
in 2005, a few months after winning the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition; Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland who sang the title role in Donizetti's Anna Bolena; Martina Arroyo and Ghena Dimitrova who sang in MOT's 1986 production of Turandot; Luciano Pavarotti who sang at Joe Louis Arena in 1989; Irina Mishura who played Carmen during the 1996-97 season; The Three Tenors in 1999 at the historic Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Andrea Bocelli who made his staged operatic debut in Werther and Denyce Graves who made her MOT debut in Werther; and Ewa Podles
Ewa Podles
Ewa Podleś is an internationally celebrated Polish coloratura contralto with a very wide vocal range and great vocal agility....
, the Polish contralto who sang in Verdi's A Masked Ball.
World
Michigan Opera Theatre has staged the world premieres of the following operas:- Washington Square, composed by Thomas PasatieriThomas PasatieriThomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.He began composing at age 10 and, as a teenager, studied with Nadia Boulanger...
to a librettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Kenward ElmslieKenward ElmslieKenward Gray Elmslie is an American writer, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.-Life and career:...
after Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
's novel, Washington SquareWashington Square (novel)Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father...
. (October 1, 1976) - Singers / "What is there to sing about? composed by Charles StrouseCharles StrouseCharles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist.-Life and career:Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel Strouse...
1978 - Margaret GarnerMargaret Garner (opera)Margaret Garner is an American opera loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner. It was co-commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. The music was composed by Richard Danielpour with a libretto in English by...
, composed by Richard DanielpourRichard DanielpourRichard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...
to a libretto by Toni MorrisonToni MorrisonToni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
based on her novel BelovedBeloved (novel)Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, published in 1987. Set in 1873 just after the American Civil War , it is based on the story of the African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state...
. (May 7, 2005) - CyranoCyrano (opera)Cyrano is an opera in three acts by David DiChiera to a libretto in French by Bernard Uzan, based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. The opera premiered on 13 October 2007 at the Michigan Opera Theatre. It was then given February 8–17, 2008 at the Opera Company of Philadelphia...
composed by David DiChiera to a libretto by Bernard Uzan after Edmond RostandEdmond RostandEdmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
's play Cyrano de BergeracCyrano de Bergerac (play)Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
. (October 13, 2007)
North American
Michigan Opera Theatre staged these North American Premieres- Anoush composed by Armen TigranianArmen TigranianArmen Tigranian was an Armenian music composer and conductor. His best-known works were two national operas, Anoush and Davit Bek ; the latter of which premiered only months before his death and was his final composition...
Based on a Poem by Hovhannes Toumanian 1981 - The Haunted Castle composed by Stanislow Moniuzko 1982
- Michigan Opera 40th Anniversary Season 2010-2011