The Icelandic Opera (''Íslenska óperan'') is an opera company based in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

that produces operas and concerts. Its productions emphasize Icelandic artists, but regularly involve foreign artists as well. The company performs between October and May every year at the Harpa concert hall, their home venue since the hall's opening in 2011. As of October 2017, the company has produced 85 operas.

History

The company was founded in the late 1970s by opera tenor , father of tenor

Garðar Thór Cortes Garðar Thór Cortes (pronounced , born 2 May 1974) is an Icelandic tenor of Icelandic and English parentage. A former child actor, Garðar subsequently trained as a singer in Vienna, Copenhagen and London. He has performed various leading tenor ...

. He remained artistic director until Ólöf Kolbrún Harðardóttir, also an opera singer, took over in 1992. Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir was appointed the new director of the company in April 2015. The company's first performance was Leoncavallo's '' Pagliacci'' in March 1979.Atladóttir, E
"Íslenska óperan: aurar og eldsálir"
(Master's thesis), Spring 2015,

Bifröst University Bifröst University () is located in the valley of List of valleys of Iceland, Norðurárdalur, approximately 30 kilometers north of Borgarnes, Iceland. Originally a business school, it also offers degrees in law and social sciences, at both bach ...

. Since then, it has performed classics by Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini and others. For the first 30 years of its existence, the organization performed in the cinema on Ingólfsstræti in downtown Reykjavík.

References

External links

*
The Icelandic Opera

Operabase Operabase is an online database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.Edward Sc ...

Opera companies Music organizations based in Iceland {{opera-stub