Opera San José is an American opera company founded in 1984 by Irene Dalis (1925-2014) based in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

History

Opera San José was founded in 1984 by

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

singer Irene Dalis (1925-2014), who directed the company for 30 years until her retirement in 2014. In 1988, it formed a residency of principal artists that would perform in all productions, modeled after traditional European opera companies. The company purchased two apartment buildings to provide the artists with housing rent-free. Initially performances took place in the Montgomery Theater in San Jose's Civic Auditorium complex until 2004 when productions moved to the newly-restored historical California Theatre. Larry Hancock served as the General Director from 2014 until his retirement in 2019, at which point he introduced arts administrator Khori Dastoor as his successor. Joseph Marcheso has been the music director and Principal Conductor since 2014. In June 2021, Dastoor was selected to become the next General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera, beginning in January 2022. Opera San José announced the appointment of nationally acclaimed opera and theatre director Shawna Lucey as its new General Director and CEO in December 2021. Lucey's appointment as the fourth General Director in Opera San José's history would begin in January 2022, midway through the company's 38th season, overseeing productions of Bizet's ''Carmen'' and Bernstein's ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

'' as well as the return of the Irene Dalis Vocal Competition. Following cancellations in 2020-21 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the company's 2021–22 season began in September 2022 with a digital production of Rimsky-Korsakov's '' Mozart and Salieri'', starring baritones Sidney Outlaw (Salieri) and Simon Barrad (Mozart). A month later, the company returned to the California Theatre with a new production of

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's ...

's baroque opera, ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque music, Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncer ...

''. Casting for this celebrated work included

Nikola Printz as Dido,

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

Efraín Solís as Aeneas,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical 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 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

Maya Kherani as Belinda,

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...

Nathan Stark as the Sorcerer, and

dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

s from San José Dance Theatre. In June 2020, Opera San José unveiled its plans to create the Heiman Digital Media Studio, a new performance/film space that enables the company to stream fully produced operatic performances into the living room of patrons. The studio was funded by a donation from Opera San José trustee Peggy Heiman in honor of her late husband, Fred Heiman. On July 11, 2020, Opera San José launched its Digital Media Studio series with virtual performances of Robert Schumann's ''Dichterliebe ('A Poet's Love')'' song cycle performed by Resident Artist baritone Eugene Brancoveanu and Resident Artist conductor Christopher James Ray on piano. The virtual performance was offered in English with Spanish and Vietnamese translations. A few months later, in December 2020, Opera San José presented a new fully staged production of

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's chamber opera, '' Three Decembers'', featuring mezzo-soprano

Susan Graham Susan Graham (born July 23, 1960) is an American mezzo-soprano. Life and career Susan Graham was born in Roswell, New Mexico on July 23, 1960. Raised in Midland, Texas, Graham is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of ...

in the central role, alongside Resident Artists soprano Maya Kherani and baritone Efraín Solís. Virtual offerings that followed ''Three Decembers'' included a virtual New Year's Eve celebration, '' The Parting Glass'' (December 2020); ''Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy'' (April 2021); '' Sing For Your Supper!'' (May 2021); and '' The Parting Glass Part 2: Back to the Bar!'' (December 2021).

California Theatre

The premiere season of Opera San José began on September 18, 2004, at the 1,100-seat California Theater. The California Theatre, which opened as a vaudeville and movie theatre in 1927, was renovated nearly 30 years after it closed its doors in 1973. It is currently one of the most significant performing venues in the area.

Resident company

Opera San José's resident company is made up of early career artists that are identified and awarded annual contracts. During their tenure, members of the resident company perform leading roles in mainstage productions and participate in school and community-wide educational activities. Modeled after the German regional opera company, the resident company aims to prepare its artists for further career opportunities through performance experience and coaching by conductors and stage directors.

Operations

To date, Opera San José has presented 150 opera productions, including five world premieres among the 64 titles in its repertoire. Notable productions include the American premiere of Alma Deutcher's Cinderella (2017),

's Moby-Dick (2019), and a large-scale production of Mozart's Idomeneo: ré di Creta (2011) jointly produced with the Packard Humanities. The number of K-12 educational performances has exceeded 2,300. Community programming for adult audiences totals some 3,200 performances. Between all areas of programming, the company reached approximately 113,000 in its last complete season (2018-2019). Opera San José has received four-star ratings from

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for its record of responsible fiscal management. Opera San José is funded by the city of San José as well as by donors such as

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...

Packard Humanities Institute The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, ...

Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Redington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation awa ...

David and Lucile Packard Foundation The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard (co-founder of HP) and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's dea ...

, and the

Getty Foundation The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California, at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts".Getty FoundationAbout the Foundation. Retrieved September 18, 2008. In the past, it funded the ...

References

External links

Opera San José
California opera companies Musical groups from San Jose, California Culture of San Jose, California Musical groups established in 1984 Weeks and Day buildings {{DEFAULTSORT:Opera San José