Cincinnati Opera

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The Cincinnati Opera is the second oldest opera company in the U.S., founded in 1920.^[1]

For more than fifty years, the Opera performed at the Cincinnati Zoo Pavilion and, at its peak, offered 18 productions of over 61 performances in a ten-week season. During the Zoo years, a number of famous opera singers frequented the stage: Jan Peerce, Robert Merrill, Roberta Peters, Shirley Verrett, Lawrence Tibbett, Richard Tucker, Martina Arroyo, and a very young Placido Domingo. In addition to the artists, patrons who experienced opera at the Zoo observed the sounds of sea lions and peacocks joining the chorus, and the occasional creature waddling up and down the rows of seats.

In 1972, Cincinnati Opera moved from the Zoo Pavilion to Music Hall. This move signaled production and artistic changes, and new sets became an immediate focus because of the larger stage. The fourth largest hall in the United States, Music Hall is known as “The Grand Dame of Elm Street,” and is a National Historic Landmark. Since Music Hall has become the home of the Cincinnati Opera’s Performances such notable performers as Aprile Millo, Mark Delavan, Antonello Palombi, Ruth Ann Swenson, Denyce Graves, Angela Brown, and Peter Mattei have frequented the stage and the orchestra (Cincinnati Symphony which plays each summer as the official orchestra of Cincinnati Opera) has been led by such conductors as Patrick Summers and Giordano Bellincampi.

On January 13, 2005, Cincinnati Opera raised the curtain on the 4-story Corbett Opera Center, its new headquarters in the north wing of Music Hall. The $4 million project consisted of a complete renovation of the north wing of Music Hall to accommodate the Opera’s administrative and production teams, and to allow for more rehearsal space. The Center is named in honor of longtime Cincinnati Opera patrons J. Ralph and Patricia Corbett and The Corbett Foundation, which provided a $1.5 million lead grant for the project.

Evans Mirageas has been artistic director for Cincinnati Opera since 2005. Following his first season with the company, he was recognized as one of the “25 Most Powerful Names in U.S. Opera” by Opera News magazine. Widely considered one of the most talented and respected artistic leaders in the classical music industry today, Mr. Mirageas is an award-winning record producer, lecturer, interviewer, presenter, and awards panelist. He is formally Senior Vice President of Artists and Repertoire for the Decca Record Company where he supervised opera recordings of Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, and Placido Domingo—just to name a few. He has served as an independent advisor to performing artists and ensembles including conductors Semyon Bychkov, Sir Roger Norrington, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Andreas Delfs, as well as with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, among others.

The 2007 Summer Festival ended by setting several records including a four-performance run of Aida that was viewed by 12,595 people, more attendees than any other opera production since the company's move to Music Hall in 1972.

At the close of the 2007 Summer Festival, Cincinnati Opera announced future plans including celebrity casting leading up to its 90th Anniversary Season in 2010 - featuring a new production of Die Meistersinger led by Cincinnati native James Levine, music director for the Metropolitan Opera, with an all-star cast including Hei-Kyung Hong, James Morris, Sir Thomas Allen, John Del Carlo, and Richard Margison.

Cincinnati Opera's 2008 Summer Festival opens June 11 with Puccini's Madame Butterfly (June 11, 13, & 15). Following Madame Butterfly, Cincinnati Opera will present a fresh look at Donizetti’s masterpiece, Lucia di Lammermoor, with his beautiful French version, Lucie de Lammermoor (June 26 & 28). The season also will include the company’s first opera in Spanish with the Cincinnati premiere of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas (July 10 & 12). A new production of Verdi’s La Traviata (July 23, 25, & 27m) will make its world premiere to conclude the season.