Opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to theaters hosting traveling performers and companies.

The Old Opera House

Operas were staged at a variety of theaters in the city, the first documented in 1776 at the Theatre de la Rue Saint Pierre

Theatre de la Rue Saint Pierre

Theatre de la Rue Saint Pierre, was the first theatre in New Orleans in Louisiana. It opened in 1792. It was described as a small building of native lumber near the center of the city. It was located on the Uptown side of St...

. The city's most famous opera venue, however, was the New Orleans Opera House, better known in its later decades as the old French Opera House

French Opera House

The French Opera House was an opera house in New Orleans. It was one of the city's landmarks from its opening in 1859 until it was destroyed by fire in 1919...

. It was located on Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...

 in the French Quarter

French Quarter

The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...

, and opened in 1859. New Orleans' social life, whether high or low, imported or indigenous, found a receptive audience in this cosmopolitan city.

The theater burned down in 1919, causing severe disruption in opera in the city. As attempts to arrange finances to rebuild did not succeed, the company disbanded and for a generation most opera in New Orleans was put on by touring companies at various theaters in the city.

The Modern Era

In 1943, the New Orleans Opera Association was formed, and succeeded in securing a resident company in the city. Among the celebrated singers who have appeared with the company are Licia Albanese

Licia Albanese

Licia Albanese is 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 of New York from 1940 to 1966...

, John Alexander

John Alexander (tenor)

John Alexander was an American operatic tenor who had a substantial career during the 1950s through the 1980s. He had a long standing relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with that company every year between 1961 and 1987 for a total of 379 performances...

, June Anderson

June Anderson

June Anderson is a Grammy Award-winning American coloratura soprano. Originally known for bel canto performances of Rossini, Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, she was the first non-Italian ever to win the prestigious Bellini d'Oro prize...

, Victoria de los Ángeles

Victoria de los Ángeles

Victoria de los Ángeles was a Spanish Catalan operatic soprano and recitalist whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Her obituary in The Times noted that she must be counted “among the finest singers of the second half...

,
Charles Anthony, Karan Armstrong

Karan Armstrong

Karan Armstrong is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1960s.-Biography:...

,
Salvatore Baccaloni

Salvatore Baccaloni

Salvatore Baccaloni was an Italian operatic bass, often regarded as the greatest buffo artist of the 20th century.- Life and career :Baccaloni was born in Rome...

, Fedora Barbieri

Fedora Barbieri

Fedora Barbieri was an Italian mezzo-soprano.Barbieri was born in Trieste. She made her official debut in Florence in 1940, but retired in 1943 because of her marriage. She re-emerged in 1945. She was one of the first performers to investigate and perform in early operas by Monteverdi and Pergolesi...

, Carlo Bergonzi, Bianca Berini, Jussi Björling

Jussi Björling

Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...

, Rockwell Blake

Rockwell Blake

Rockwell Blake is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award.-Biography:...

, Inge Borkh

Inge Borkh

Inge Borkh is a German soprano.Borkh was born Ingeborg Simon in Mannheim, Germany, in 1921. She was initially an actress and had some training in dance, both of which served her well in opera: she became known both for her voice and for her dramatic intensity - the "singing actress" exemplified,...

, Patricia Brooks

Patricia Brooks

Patricia Brooks , was a lyric soprano, actress, and opera singer, who performed primarily with the New York City Opera. She was known for her acting ability as much as for her voice.-Biography:...

, Débria Brown

Débria Brown

Débria M. Brown was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international career that spanned five decades. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the...

,
Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....

, Lisa della Casa

Lisa Della Casa

Lisa Della Casa is a Swiss soprano most admired for her interpretations of major heroines in major operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss, of German lieder, and for her great beauty. She was dubbed “the most beautiful woman on the operatic stage”...

, Richard Cassilly

Richard Cassilly

Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...

, Vivian della Chiesa

Vivian Della Chiesa

Vivian Della Chiesa was an American lyric soprano who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s. She performed a wide variety of classical and popular works from opera to musical theatre, jazz, and popular songs...

, Boris Christoff

Boris Christoff

Boris Christoff was a Bulgarian opera singer...

, William Cochran

William Cochran (tenor)

William Cochran was born on June 23, 1943, in Columbus, Ohio, and is an internationally-noted Heldentenor. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Martial Singher. A winner of the Lauritz Melchior Heldentenor Foundation Award, he debuted with the Metropolitan Opera, as Vogelgesang in Die...

, Eugene Conley

Eugene Conley

Eugene Conley was a celebrated American operatic tenor.Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Conley studied under Ettore Verna, and made his official debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1940...

, Dominic Cossa

Dominic Cossa

Dominic Cossa is an American operatic lyric baritone particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoire.-Biography:...

, Fiorenza Cossotto

Fiorenza Cossotto

Fiorenza Cossotto is an Italian mezzo soprano. She is considered by many to be one of the great mezzo-sopranos of the 20th century.-Life and career:...

, Mary Costa

Mary Costa

Mary Costa is an American singer, actress, and Disney Legend. She is best known for playing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty. She is also a professional opera singer....

, Muriel Costa-Greenspon

Muriel Costa-Greenspon

Muriel Costa-Greenspon was an American mezzo-soprano who had a lengthy career at the New York City Opera between 1963-1993...

, Alan Crofoot

Alan Crofoot

Alan Crofoot was a Canadian operatic Heldentenor and character tenor specialist, as well as actor, who is best remembered as the host of Mr Piper, a children's television series made in 1963. It was originally shown by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and also became well-known in the...

, Phyllis Curtin

Phyllis Curtin

Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...

, Gianna d'Angelo

Gianna d'Angelo

Gianna D'Angelo , is an American coloratura soprano, primarily active in the 1950s and 1960s.Born Jane Angelovich in Hartford, Connecticut, she studied first at The Juilliard School in New York City with Giuseppe De Luca...

,
Cristina Deutekom

Cristina Deutekom

Cristina Deutekom is a Dutch opera singer. Renowned for her coloratura technique, she is also known as Christine Deutekom and Christina Deutekom....

, Michael Devlin, Justino Díaz

Justino Díaz

Justino Díaz is an internationally renowned bass-baritone opera singer. In 1963, Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, becoming the "first" Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence, made his Metropolitan debut on October 1963 in Verdi's Rigoletto...

,
Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...

, Mignon Dunn,
Marc Embree, Lucia Evangelista,
Ruth Falcon

Ruth Falcon

Ruth Falcon is an American operatic soprano.Falcon graduated from Loyola University of the South and Tulane University and appeared with the New Orleans Opera Association as Frasquita in Carmen, in 1968, opposite Norman Treigle as Escamillo. She made her debut with the New York City Opera as...

, Eileen Farrell

Eileen Farrell

Eileen Farrell was an American soprano who had a nearly 60 year long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances...

, Vicki Fisk, Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

, Ferruccio Furlanetto

Ferruccio Furlanetto

Ferruccio Furlanetto is an Italian bass. His professional debut was in 1979 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, in a production of Verdi's Macbeth, conducted by Claudio Abbado...

, Elizabeth Futral

Elizabeth Futral

Elizabeth Futral is an American coloratura soprano who has won acclaim throughout the United States as well as in Europe, South America, and Japan....

,
Marisa Galvany

Marisa Galvany

Marisa Galvany is an American soprano who had an active international career performing in operas and concerts up into the early 2000s. Known for the great intensity of her performances, Galvany particularly excelled in portraying Verdi heroines...

, Jon Garrison

Jon Garrison

Jon Garrison is a successful American operatic tenor who has been performing in locations around the world since 1965. He first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 1974, in a secondary role in the company premiere of Death in Venice, which featured Sir Peter Pears...

, Nicolai Gedda

Nicolai Gedda

Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history...

, Leyla Gencer

Leyla Gencer

Leyla Gencer, or Ayşe Leyla Çeyrekgil was a world-renowned Turkish operatic soprano.Known as "La Diva Turca" and "La Regina" in the opera world, Gencer was a notable bel canto soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire...

, Giuseppe Giacomini

Giuseppe Giacomini

Giuseppe Giacomini is an Italian dramatic tenor. An impressive tenor voice thanks of its richness and power. Known as "Bepi" amongst his fans, recently celebrated his 40th anniversary of singing....

, Enrico di Giuseppe

Enrico Di Giuseppe

Enrico Di Giuseppe was a celebrated Italian-American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan...

, Susan Graham

Susan Graham

Susan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music. She studied the piano for 13 years...

, Greer Grimsley

Greer Grimsley

Greer Grimsley is an American bass-baritone who has had an active international opera career for the last three decades. He has sung leading roles with all of America's leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, and the Houston...

, Paul Groves

Paul Groves (tenor)

Paul Groves is an American operatic tenor. In 1991 he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and in 1995 he won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award...

,
Mack Harrell

Mack Harrell

Mack Harrell was an American baritone who was regarded as one of the greatest concert singers of his generation....

, Jerome Hines

Jerome Hines

The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...

, Rita Hunter

Rita Hunter

Rita Hunter CBE was a British operatic dramatic soprano.Rita Hunter was born in Wallasey, Merseyside. She studied singing in Liverpool with Edwin Francis and later in London with Redvers Llewellyn and Clive Carey...

,
Siegfried Jerusalem

Siegfried Jerusalem

Siegfried Jerusalem is a German operatic tenor. Closely identified with the heldentenor roles of Wagner, he has performed Siegfried, Siegmund, Lohengrin, Parsifal and Tristan to wide acclaim...

, Raoul Jobin

Raoul Jobin

Raoul Jobin, was a French-Canadian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the French repertory.- Life and career :...

,
Raina Kabaivanska

Raina Kabaivanska

Raina Kabaivanska is a Bulgarian opera singer, one of the leading lyrico-spinto sopranos of her generation, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini, although she sang a wide range of roles....

, Dorothy Kirsten

Dorothy Kirsten

Dorothy Kirsten was an American operatic soprano.-Biography:...

,
Flaviano Labò

Flaviano Labò

Flaviano Labò , was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with heroic roles of the Italian repertory.Labò was born at Borgonovo, near Piacenza...

, Anthony Laciura

Anthony Laciura

Anthony Laciura is an American operatic tenor, noted for his abilities as a comprimario. Born in New Orleans, he studied voice there with Charles Paddock, also the teacher of Ticho Parly....

,
Mario Lanza

Mario Lanza

right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....

, Evelyn Lear

Evelyn Lear

Evelyn Lear is an American soprano and opera singer.During her career between 1959 and 1992, Evelyn Lear appeared in more than forty operatic roles, appeared with every major opera company in the US and won a Grammy Award in 1966...

, Luis Lima

Luis Lima

Luis Lima is an Argentine operatic tenor, who studied in Buenos Aires under Carlos Guichandut and in Sicily under Gina Cigna...

, Chester Ludgin

Chester Ludgin

-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...

,
Cornell MacNeil

Cornell MacNeil

Cornell MacNeil , was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. F...

, John Macurdy

John Macurdy

John Macurdy is an esteemed American operatic bass. Among his teachers was the contralto Elisabeth Wood, who was also the pedagogue of Norman Treigle.- Début in New Orleans :...

, Virginia MacWatters

Virginia MacWatters

Virginia MacWatters was an acclaimed American coloratura soprano.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, MacWatters studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, and sang 611 Broadway performances of Adele in Rosalinda , conducted by Erich Korngold, from 1942 to 1944...

, James Maddalena

James Maddalena

James Maddalena is an American baritone who is chiefly associated with contemporary American opera. He gained international recognition in 1987 when he created the role of Richard Nixon at the premiere of Adams's opera Nixon in China at Houston. He has since reprised the role on many occasions,...

, Jean Madeira

Jean Madeira

Jean Madeira was an American mezzo-soprano, particularly known for her work in late-romantic German repertoire such as the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss...

,
Catherine Malfitano

Catherine Malfitano

Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...

, Matteo Manuguerra

Matteo Manuguerra

Matteo Manuguerra was a Tunisian-born French baritone, one of the leading Verdi baritones of the 1970s.Manuguerra was born in Tunis, Tunisia, to Italian parents, who later moved to Argentina. He came late to music, starting his vocal study at the age of 35, at the Buenos Aires Music Conservatory,...

, Susanne Marsee

Susanne Marsee

Susanne Marsee is an American mezzo-soprano of note. She was one of the New York City Opera's leading mezzo-sopranos from 1970, when she debuted opposite Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo and Louis Quilico, in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, with Julius Rudel conducting Tito Capobianco's...

, Enzo Mascherini

Enzo Mascherini

Enzo Mascherini was an Italian operatic baritone, one of the leading baritones of his generation....

,
Yuri Mazurok

Yuri Mazurok

Yuri Mazurok is a Polish operatic baritone of Ukrainian ethnicity. He has sung leading roles with major opera houses internationally, including the Bolshoi Theatre, where he made his debut as Eugene Onegin, to become his most famous part, in 1963, the Canadian Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera...

, James McCracken

James McCracken

James McCracken was an American operatic tenor. At the time of his death The New York Times stated that McCracken was "the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States and a pillar of the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s and 1970s."-Biography:Born in Gary, Indiana,...

, Dennis McNeil

Dennis McNeil

Dennis McNeil, , is an American operatic tenor, musical theater performer and concert singer. He was educated at Miraleste High School, Loyola High School , the Institute for the American Musical, Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera and the University of California, Davis .-Opera:McNeil...

, Johanna Meier

Johanna Meier

Johanna Meier is an American operatic soprano, known as "one of the foremost Wagnerian sopranos of her era". She had an international career, including fourteen years at the Metropolitan Opera and three summers singing the role of Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the Bayreuth...

, Robert Merrill

Robert Merrill

Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...

, Zinka Milanov

Zinka Milanov

Zinka Milanov was a Croatian-born operatic spinto soprano who had a major career centred on the New York Metropolitan Opera.-Biography:...

, Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....

, Mario del Monaco

Mario del Monaco

Mario Del Monaco was an Italian tenor who is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th century....

, James Morris, Patrice Munsel

Patrice Munsel

Patrice Munsel is an American coloratura soprano, the youngest singer who ever starred at the Metropolitan Opera, nicknamed "Princess Pat"....

,
Carol Neblett

Carol Neblett

Carol Neblett is an American operatic soprano.-Life and career:Neblett studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 1969, made her operatic debut with the New York City Opera, playing the part of Musetta in Puccini's La bohème...

, Herva Nelli

Herva Nelli

Herva Nelli was an Italian-born operatic soprano.-Biography:Named after the French socialist Gustave Hervé, she was born in Florence, where she attended a convent school...

, Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson

right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948.Birgit Nilsson was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works...

, Salvador Novoa

Salvador Novoa

Salvador Novoa is a Mexican dramatic tenor. He is especially known for the operas of Alberto Ginastera....

, Jarmila Novotná

Jarmila Novotná

Jarmila Novotná was a celebrated Czech soprano and actress and, from 1940 to 1956, a star of the Metropolitan Opera.-Early career:...

,
Lisette Oropesa

Lisette Oropesa

Lisette Oropesa is an American soprano, who was raised in Baton Rouge, where she studied at Louisiana State University...

,
Ticho Parly

Ticho Parly

Ticho Parly was a Danish Heldentenor who sang leading roles in most of the major opera houses of Europe as well as the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, where he debuted in 1966 as Tristan opposite Birgit Nilsson in Tristan und Isolde.-Biography:Parly was born in Copenhagen on July...

, Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....

, Roberta Peters

Roberta Peters

Roberta Peters is an American coloratura soprano.One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York...

, Marguerite Piazza

Marguerite Piazza

Marguerite Piazza is an American soprano and entertainer.In 1935, Piazza was the first Queen of the Krewe of Virgilians, during Mardi Gras, in New Orleans. A 1940 graduate of Loyola University of the South's College of Music, she then studied at Louisiana State University, where she was a student...

, Ezio Pinza

Ezio Pinza

Ezio Pinza was an Italian basso opera singer with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas...

,
Paul Plishka

Paul Plishka

Paul Plishka is a Ukrainian-American bass opera singer.Mr Plishka comes from Old Forge, Pennsylvania and Paterson, New Jersey; his parents were American-born children of Ukrainian immigrants...

,
Louis Quilico

Louis Quilico

Louis Quilico, CC was a Canadian opera singer. One of the leading dramatic baritones of his day, he was an ideal interpreter of the great Italian and French composers, especially Giuseppe Verdi. He was often referred to as "Mr Rigoletto" in reference to the Verdi opera...

,
Judith Raskin

Judith Raskin

Judith Raskin was an American lyric soprano, renowned for her fine voice as well as her acting.Raskin was born in New York to Harry A. Raskin, a high school music teacher, and Lillian Raskin, a grade school teacher. Her father aroused her childhood interest in music, leading her to study violin...

, Benjamin Rayson, Kirk Redmann

Kirk Redmann

Kirk Redmann is an American operatic tenor, and the son of Audrey Schuh and Kerry P. Redmann.Born in New Orleans, he graduated from Tulane University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts...

, Regina Resnik

Regina Resnik

Regina Resnik is an American operatic singer.Regina Resnik, the American mezzo-soprano, started a dramatic career ten months after earning her B.A. in Music at Hunter College. The role was Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch in December, 1942 with the New Opera Company. A few months later, she sang...

,
Katia Ricciarelli

Katia Ricciarelli

-Biography:Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family, she struggled during her younger years when she studied music.She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969,...

, Natalia Rom

Natalia Rom

Natalia Rom, soprano, was born in Kazan, in the Soviet Union , and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory. In late 1976, she emigrated to New Orleans, where she attended Loyola University's College of Music, where she studied voice with Patricia Havranek...

, Nancy Ross,
Sylvia Sass

Sylvia Sass

Sylvia Sass is a Hungarian operatic soprano who has sung leading roles both in her native country and internationally.-Life and career:...

, Bidú Sayão

Bidu Sayão

Bidú Sayão was a Brazilian opera soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 to 1952.-Life and career:...

, Audrey Schuh

Audrey Schuh

Audrey Schuh was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on , and studied both music and medical technology at Loyola University of the South, where she studied with Dorothy Hulse, who was also the pedagogue of Harry Theyard and Charles Anthony...

, Nancy Shade

Nancy Shade

Nancy Shade is a celebrated spinto soprano, best known as a singing-actress. She made her formal debut as Leonora in Il trovatore, in Louisville, in 1967. In 1971, she made her first of many appearances at the New York City Opera, as Musetta in La bohème...

, Rita Shane

Rita Shane

Rita Shane is a dramatic coloratura soprano. She studied at Barnard College and under Beverly Peck Johnson, and made her operatic debut as the doll Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, at Chattanooga in 1964...

, Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...

, Diana Soviero

Diana Soviero

Diana Soviero is an American operatic soprano of international stature, a recipient of the Richard Tucker Award in 1979....

, Eleanor Steber

Eleanor Steber

Eleanor Steber was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States.-Biography:...

, Giuseppe di Stefano

Giuseppe Di Stefano

Giuseppe Di Stefano was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. He was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voice", as the true successor of Beniamino Gigli...

, Risë Stevens

Risë Stevens

Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...

, Thaïs St Julien

Thais St Julien

Thaïs St Julien is a native of New Orleans, and is argurably the South's foremost singer of Early Music. The soprano studied under Charles Paddock, Virginia MacWatters and Norma Newton, and is Co-Director of the New Orleans Musica da Camera, which specialises in music of the Middle Ages and the...

, Dame Joan Sutherland

Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....

,
Italo Tajo

Italo Tajo

Italo Tajo was an Italian operatic bass, particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles.Tajo was born in Pinerolo, Piedmont, and studied violin and voice at the Music Conservatory of Turin with Nilde Stichi-Bertozzi. He made his stage debut in 1935, as Fafner , under Fritz Busch...

, Harry Theyard

Harry Theyard

Harry Theyard , tenor, is a native of New Orleans and is a 1957 graduate of Loyola University of the South, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, who was also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Charles Anthony...

, Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a great American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera company more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950...

, Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a great American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera company more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950...

, Giorgio Tozzi

Giorgio Tozzi

Giorgio Tozzi was for many years a leading bass with the Metropolitan Opera, as well as playing lead roles in nearly every major opera house worldwide.-Career:Tozzi was born George John Tozzi in Chicago, Illinois...

, Norman Treigle

Norman Treigle

Norman Treigle 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....

, Phyllis Treigle

Phyllis Treigle

Phyllis Treigle is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a noted American soprano, and the daughter of the great bass-baritone Norman Treigle...

, Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...

,
Giuseppe Valdengo

Giuseppe Valdengo

Giuseppe Valdengo was an Italian operatic baritone. Opera News said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were invariably satisfying — bold and assured in attack but scrupulously musical."-Biography:Valdengo first...

, Astrid Varnay

Astrid Varnay

Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay was an American dramatic soprano of Hungarian heritage and Swedish birth, who did most of her work in the United States and Germany. She was one of the best-known Wagnerian heroic sopranos of her generation...

, Shirley Verrett

Shirley Verrett

Shirley Verrett was an African-American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles i.e. soprano sfogato...

, Richard Versalle

Richard Versalle

Richard Versalle was an American operatic tenor, who had an international career including performances at the Bayreuth Festival and the Vienna State Opera. He died while singing in a performance of The Makropulos Case, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.-Biography:Versalle was born in...

, Jon Vickers

Jon Vickers

Jonathan Stewart Vickers, CC , known professionally as Jon Vickers, is a retired Canadian heldentenor.Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. In 1950, he was awarded a scholarship to study opera at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto...

, Ramón Vinay

Ramón Vinay

Ramón Vinay was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Otello....

,
Leonard Warren

Leonard Warren

Leonard Warren was a famous American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.-Biography:...

, Claire Watson

Claire Watson

Claire Watson was an American soprano, particularly associated with Mozart and Richard Strauss roles....

, Robert Weede

Robert Weede

-Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci...

, Ruth Welting, Gran Wilson

Gran Wilson

Gran Wilson is an American operatic lyric tenor.Wilson was born in Bessemer, Alabama, and studied at Samford University and Indiana University School of Music....

, Ingvar Wixell

Ingvar Wixell

Ingvar Wixell was a Swedish baritone who had an active international career in operas and concerts from 1955-2003. He mostly sang roles from the Italian repertory, and, according to The New York Times, "was best known for his steady-toned, riveting portrayals of the major baritone roles of...

, Sheryl Woods and
Virginia Zeani

Virginia Zeani

Virginia Zeani is a Romanian soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, especially the role of in "La traviata".-Early life:Zeani was born Virginia Zehan, in Solovăstru, Romania...

.

The Opera Association has presented two world premieres: Carlisle Floyd

Carlisle Floyd

Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...

's Markheim (with Norman Treigle and Schuh, 1966) and Thea Musgrave

Thea Musgrave

Thea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music.-Biography:Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Thea Musgrave studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger...

's Pontalba (conducted by Robert Lyall, 2003).

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

, in 2005, flooded the Theatre for the Performing Arts and the season was canceled, but the New Orleans Opera has since returned.

Also based in New Orleans, though short-lived, The New Opera Theatre

The New Opera Theatre

The New Opera Theatre was a New Orleans-based opera company founded in 1986, with conductor Louise LaBruyère as Music Director and stage director Brian Morgan serving as Artistic Director...

 (1986–1990) presented two world premieres as well as experimental productions of standard repertory. Their staging of Dido and Æneas toured to New York (Symphony Space

Symphony Space

Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...

), where it was acclaimed. Featured singers with this ensemble included Phyllis Treigle, Tracey Mitchell, Cyril and Libbye Hellier

Cyril and Libbye Hellier

Cyril and Libbye Hellier are identical twins and American operatic sopranos. Natives of Houma, Louisiana, they are the great-grandchildren of the Confederate Colonel John Henry Hellier....

, Thaïs St Julien, Susannah Waters

Susannah Waters

Susannah Waters is a British soprano. Born in London, England, she attended both Bennington College and the Guildhall School of Music.She made her New York debut early in her career, as Belinda in Dido and Æneas at Symphony Space , a production that toured to New Orleans...

 and Natalia Rom.

Since World War II, various companies have toured to New Orleans. In 1947, the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 visited with their productions of Le nozze di Figaro (with Pinza and Steber), La traviata (with Sayão) and Lucia di Lammermoor (with Munsel). They returned in 1972, with Otello (with McCracken and Milnes), Faust (with Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi

Ruggero Raimondi

Ruggero Raimondi is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.-Early training and career:Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II...

), La traviata (with Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...

) and La fille du régiment (with Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti

right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...

).

In November 1967, the American National Opera Company presented two operas in New Orleans: Lulu and Tosca (the latter with Marie Collier

Marie Collier

Marie Collier was an Australian operatic soprano.Marie Collier was born in Ballarat, Victoria. She first came to prominence in 1952 singing the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana for the National Theatre Opera company in Melbourne...

), both in productions staged by Sarah Caldwell

Sarah Caldwell

Sarah Caldwell was a notable American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director of opera.- Life :Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old...

.

As part of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, the English National Opera

English National Opera

English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...

 gave performances of Rigoletto (in Sir Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE is a British theatre and opera director, author, physician, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and...

's well-known production), Patience and Gloriana.

In 1992, New York-based Opera Quotannis

Opera Quotannis

Opera Quotannis was a New York-based opera company which was founded in 1990, with conductor Bart Folse as Music Director and stage director Brian Morgan serving as Artistic Director...

 brought their production of New Orleans-born composer Louise LaBruyère's Everyman to the Crescent City, with Mitchell in the title role.

On 17 January 2009 the New Orleans Opera, directed by Robert Lyall, performed with Placido Domingo

Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...

 in a gala reopening of New Orleans' Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts

Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts

The Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts is a theater located in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born in New Orleans. The theater reopened in January 2009 after being closed following the landfall of Hurricane...

. The master of ceremonies

Master of Ceremonies

A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....

 was New Orleans native Patricia Clarkson

Patricia Clarkson

Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...

.

Seasons

2006–2007	Le nozze di Figaro	Lucia di Lammermoor	La bohème
2007–2008	Faust	Il trittico	Rigoletto	West Side Story
2008–2009	Manon Lescaut	Don Giovanni	Carmen	La traviata
2009–2010	Tosca	Roméo et Juliette	Verdi Requiem	Der fliegende Holländer
2010–2011	Porgy and Bess	Die Zauberflöte	Les pêcheurs de perles	Il trovatore
2011–2012	Turandot	Un ballo in maschera	Salome	Pagliacci & Carmina Burana