Tulsa Opera

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Tulsa Opera is the 18th oldest opera company in the United States. The company usually performs three main stage operas per year at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Its current director is Carol I. Crawford.

1 History
2 Current Season
3 Trivia
4 External Links
5 References

[edit] History

Even before Oklahoma's statehood, opera was performed in Tulsa. In 1906, a grand opera house operated until a fire destroyed it in 1920. From that time until the Great Depression, notable opera singers such as Feodor Chaliapin, Mary Garden and Enrico Caruso performed at the Brady Theater (then called Convention Hall).

Opera ceased to be performed in the city during the Great Depression and World War II. In 1948, five Tulsans, Bess Gowans, Ralph and Ione Sassano, Mary Helen Markham and Beverly Bliss, formed the Tulsa Opera Club. On December 4th of that year, the organization performed Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, with local singers^[1].

In 1951, the name was changed from the Tulsa Opera Club to Tulsa Opera, Incorporated - the name under which it operates today. With the performance of Madama Butterfly in 1955, the company made the transition from using local amateur singers to professional singers in all major roles^[2]. .

In 1977, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center was built. Since that time, nearly all operas have been presented in the Center's Chapman Music Hall.

Singers such as Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Sherrill Milnes, and Beverly Sills have performed with the company.

[edit] Current Season

The company's 2006-2007 season features The Little Prince, Carmen, and Porgy and Bess. The 2007-2008 season will feature Tosca, Lakme, and The Magic Flute.

[edit] Trivia

Luciano Pavarotti is said to have received a horse in compensation for his performance with the company.
Only a few weeks before her debut with the company, Beverly Sills requested the scheduled opera, Anna Bolena, be changed to I Puritani. The company complied.
The ghost of Enrico Caruso is said to haunt the Brady Theater. He is supposed to have caught a cold there which led to his later death by pleurisy.