Boston Lyric Opera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boston Lyric Opera New England (BLO) is an opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1976. Its home has been the Shubert Theatre in Boston since 1998.
BLO is the region's largest and oldest opera company producing a season of professional, fully staged opera. Housed in the 1,500-seat Shubert Theatre, BLO currently stages six performances each of three mainstage productions. Over 25,000 attend the mainstage performances annually, and radio broadcasts on WGBH reach an additional 84,000. The Company offers a diverse repertoire ranging from the most popular operas to rarely performed and/or new works. BLO regularly invests in co-productions with other U.S. companies including New York City Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.
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[edit] Recent Historical Highlights
In recent years, the Company has seen several important historical milestones including its leadership role in Egypt in Boston, a citywide thematic season celebrating Egypt with complementary programs and activities at several of Boston’s leading cultural institutions in 1999-2000. In the summer of 2002, BLO’s community outreach initiative, Carmen on the Common, attracted an audience of more than 140,000 through a summer-long education series reaching each Boston neighborhood and culminating in a weekend of two free, fully staged outdoor performances of Bizet’s Carmen on the Boston Common.
[edit] Opera for School Children and Families
The Company's education and community programs division offers educational programs and opera performances throughout New England designed for children and families, including in-school and after-school programs, study guides, a teacher development course, and fully staged opera performances. The operas are condensed to one hour and sung in English. The programs are tied to Massachusetts Learning Standards and the teacher development course is accredited by the Massachusetts Department of Education.
[edit] Adult Education Programs
Boston Lyric Opera also offers several free and low-cost education programs for adults. Lectures are held at Pine Manor College, and talks with short musical performances are given at Boston Public Library. An opera education course for adults is presented twice a year in six-week periods each, covering the history of opera and focusing on the works of great composers such as Verdi, Wagner and Mozart. Before every mainstage performance, preview lectures on the upcoming performance are held at the Shubert Theatre for audience members. Additionally, BLO frequently partners with other cultural institutions, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Science, Boston, and the French Library, to present integrated education programs. Study guides for every production are made available for download on BLO’s website and include a synopsis, cast and production information, historical background, and general information about the art form.
