The Baltimore Opera Company (BOC) was an opera company in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, Maryland, U.S.A., based at the

Baltimore Lyric Opera House The Lyric Performing Arts Center is a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, located close to the University of Baltimore law school. The building was modeled after the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, and it was inaugura ...

. On 12 March 2009, the 58-year-old opera company announced plans to pursue

Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code) governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States, in contrast to Chapters 11 and 13, which govern the process of ''reorganization'' of a debtor ...

, the result of the company having filed a petition on 10 December 2008 under Chapter 11 of the

U.S. Bankruptcy Code In the United States, bankruptcy is largely governed by federal law, commonly referred to as the "Bankruptcy Code" ("Code"). The United States Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4) authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the sub ...

with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Amongst the reasons cited were "dwindling ticket sales and contributions". Productions of Gioachino Rossini's '' Il Barbiere di Siviglia'' and George Gershwin's '' Porgy and Bess'', scheduled respectively for March and May 2009, were canceled, and ticket-holders did not receive refunds. The former home of the now defunct BOC, the Lyric Opera House, is a music venue modeled after the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, building inaugurated on 31 October 1894 with a performance by the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured soloist. Not long after,

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

appeared there with the Metropolitan Opera in a performance of

Flotow Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow /flo:to/ (27 April 1812 – 24 January 1883) was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera ''Martha'', which was popular in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Life ...

's '' Martha''. One former opera singer for the Baltimore Opera is Mike Rowe, most well known as the television host of '' Dirty Jobs'' on The Discovery Channel.

History

In 1950, building on earlier amateur efforts, Baltimore Opera was formally established as the Baltimore Civic Opera Company, with the famous American

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Rosa Ponselle as its first

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

. She brought Beverly Sills to Baltimore for a production of ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was first ...

'' in 1952. By embarking upon a program of modernization in 1960 the company attracted private funding to be able to hire professional set designers and diversify its repertoire. In 1963, the Ford Foundation made a generous contribution that allowed the company to stabilize a format of three operas a season and to hire a full-time Production Manager. In subsequent years, it staged notable productions of such operas as '' Der Rosenkavalier'', in 1962, with conductor Kurt Adler; '' Rigoletto'', in 1964, with

Sherrill Milnes Sherrill Milnes (born January 10, 1935) is an American dramatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera. His voice is a high dramatic baritone, combining good legato with an inc ...

, who also appeared as

Escamillo ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

in ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'' that year; '' Lucia di Lammermoor,'' in 1965, with

Anna Moffo Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric- coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agil ...

; ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

,'' in 1966, with Sills and

Norman Treigle Norman Treigle (né Adanelle Wilfred Treigle (March 6, 1927February 16, 1975) was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror. Biograp ...

; ''

Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther ...

,'' also in 1966, with

Licia Albanese Licia Albanese (July 22, 1909 – August 15, 2014) was an Italian-born American operatic soprano. Noted especially for her portrayals of the lyric heroines of Verdi and Puccini, Albanese was a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 ...

; '' Turandot'', also in 1966, with

Birgit Nilsson Märta Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide répertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner a ...

and Teresa Stratas; '' The Tales of Hoffmann'' in 1967 with Sills, Plácido Domingo, and Treigle; and ''

Boris Godunov Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...

'', also in 1967, with Treigle. The name Baltimore Civic Opera Company was changed to Baltimore Opera Company in 1970 since the word "civic" denoted amateurism, a term deemed no longer applicable to the company's offerings. For the occasion of the American Bicentennial in 1976, the Company appropriately commissioned its first work, opera ''

Inês de Castro Inês de Castro (; in Castilian: Inés; 1325 – 7 January 1355) was a Galician noblewoman and courtier, best known as lover and posthumously-recognized wife of King Peter I of Portugal. The dramatic circumstances of her relationship with Peter ...

'', composed by Thomas Pasatieri with a libretto by Bernard Stambler. This work was a major American operatic event and featured a cast that included Richard Stilwell, James Morris, and Lili Chookasian, with staging by

Tito Capobianco Tito Capobianco (28 August 1931 – 8 September 2018) was an Argentine American stage director and general manager of several opera companies. Early life Capobianco was born in La Plata, Argentina. His parents had fled from Fascist Italy in 1928 ...

. In 1993, Baltimore Opera inaugurated its Summer Aria Series, dedicated to works by American composers and, in the following year, a sizable grant was awarded to the BOC by the National Arts Stabilization Fund in order to give the company complete financial stability. The 1994/1995 season saw additional subscription performance offered for each opera. Formerly, the company mounted four productions a year, one example being the 2007/2008 season which consisted of

Verdi's Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

La forza del destino ' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, wi ...

'', Donizetti's ''

Maria Stuarda ''Maria Stuarda'' (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica''), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play '' Maria Stuart''. The opera i ...

'', Gounod's '' Roméo et Juliette'', and Puccini's ''

''. After the BOC collapse in 2009, two companies sprang up in an attempt to take its place in producing opera in Baltimore: Baltimore Opera Theatre performs at the Hippodrome downtown, while Lyric Opera Baltimore has taken over the keystone role at the BOC's old venue, the Lyric Opera House. In addition, opera is presented by smaller organizations or on a smaller scale by companies as different as Baltimore Concert Opera and Opera Vivente, the latter presenting productions with "a modern spin"."The Show Goes On"
September/October 2010 on baltimorestyle.com. Retrieved 28 June 2013

References

External links

Baltimore Opera website

Smith, Tim. "Regrettable end for Baltimore Opera," ''The Baltimore Sun'', Sunday, March 15, 2009.
{{authority control Musical groups from Baltimore American opera companies Musical groups established in 1950 Musical groups disestablished in 2009 Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 1950 establishments in Maryland 2009 disestablishments in Maryland Performing arts in Maryland