Opera San Jose
Encyclopedia
Opera San José is the professional opera
company in San Jose, California
, United States, founded in 1984 by Irene Dalis
. In 1988, it formed a resident company of principal artists, for which it has purchased fourteen apartment units to provide rent-free accommodation. Until 2004, the company performed in the Montgomery Theater in San Jose's Civic Auditorium complex, but since then it has performed in the remodeled California Theatre, now a performing arts venue in the city. One of the keys to the company's success over the years has been its fiscal prudence.
Khori Dastoor
, Jason Detwiler
, Adam Flowers
, Susan Gundunas
, Thomas Rolf Truhitte
, and Kerry Walsh.
and film theatre designed by Weeks and Day
. On opening day in 1927, this 1,848 seat movie palace
was said to be the finest theater in California. With its magnificent Jazz Age décor, it was part of a wave of ornate theaters built to define downtowns all over the country.
For nearly 50 years the theatre showed films, until its closure in 1973. It was left vacant for many years and had decayed, but reopened in 2004 after a 75 million dollar restoration project done expressly for Opera San Jose and as the result of large donations. This came as a big relief to local historians, who feared the building would be demolished like many other historic buildings in the city center.
In 2004, the California Theatre reopened as a major performing arts facility designed both for live stage performances and for motion pictures. The new theatre is filled with modern amenities in a setting of meticulously restored 1920's opulence. It has been called one of the most beautiful theatres in the state, and is now the home of Opera San Jose and Symphony Silicon Valley.
In 2004 Team San Jose
took over management of the facility and promotes its venues and the theatre itself as a favorite place to hold events. A lavish conference facility with additional meeting rooms, and state-of-the-art audio and video technology, has been added to the original structure.
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...
company in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, United States, founded in 1984 by Irene Dalis
Irene Dalis
Irene Dalis is an American mezzo-soprano born in San José, California. She made her debut in 1953 as Eboli in Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi in Germany. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, also as Eboli in Don Carlo, on March 16, 1957, earning fine reviews. That was the first of ...
. In 1988, it formed a resident company of principal artists, for which it has purchased fourteen apartment units to provide rent-free accommodation. Until 2004, the company performed in the Montgomery Theater in San Jose's Civic Auditorium complex, but since then it has performed in the remodeled California Theatre, now a performing arts venue in the city. One of the keys to the company's success over the years has been its fiscal prudence.
Resident company
In 1988, Opera San José formed a resident company of principal artists, for which it provides rent-free accommodation. These artists are typically promising singers in the early years of their career. They are given annual contracts & coaching and are expected to fill leading roles in the company's performances. This program is modeled after similar programs in German regional opera companies.Current resident artists
The following artists are current members of the resident company:- Alexandra Boyer
- Evan Brummel
- Betany Coffland
- Michael Dailey
- Silas Elash
- Jasmina Halimic
- Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste
- Krassen Karagiozov
- Isaiah Musik-Ayala
Former resident artists
The following artists have been in the resident company of Opera San José:Khori Dastoor
Khori Dastoor
Khori Dastoor is an American operatic soprano and actress. A native of Pasadena, California, as of 2010, she is an Artist in Residence with Opera San Jose...
, Jason Detwiler
Jason Detwiler
Baritone Jason Detwiler is an American opera singer.Since 2000, Mr. Detwiler has sung over thirty lead roles with regional companies throughout the US....
, Adam Flowers
Adam Flowers
Adam Flowers is an American lyric tenor who is based in San Francisco, California. Flowers sings major lyric tenor roles in opera houses across the Western United States....
, Susan Gundunas
Susan Gundunas
Susan Gundunas is an American Soprano vocalist specializing in the Operatic performances.A Graduate of Santa Clara University susan Gundunas has performed in Hamburg Germany's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. She has also performed operatic arias on National German Radio...
, Thomas Rolf Truhitte
Thomas Rolf Truhitte
Thomas Rolf Truhitte is a well-known American heldentenor who has become noted in recent years for his roles in Wagnerian operas. The son of actor Daniel Truhitte, his middle name is a tribute to his father's most famous role as "Rolf" in the movie adaptation of The Sound of Music.Thomas was in the...
, and Kerry Walsh.
Performances of non-standard works
- Anna KareninaAnna Karenina (Carlson)Anna Karenina is an opera in two acts by American composer David Carlson, based on the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, commissioned by Florida Grand Opera to celebrate the 2007 opening of the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, co-commissioned by Opera...
(David CarlsonDavid CarlsonDavid Carlson American composer.Carlson studied theory and composition at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts and with Leonard Stein at the California Institute of the Arts...
)
(2010-11) - La RondineLa rondineLa rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
(Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
)
(2009-10) - The CrucibleThe Crucible (opera)The Crucible is an English language opera written by Robert Ward based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It won both the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation. The libretto was lightly adapted from Miller's text by Bernard Stambler.Ward received a...
(Robert Ward)
(2005-06)
- The Pearl Fishers (Georges BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
)
(2004-05) - ManonManonManon 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...
(Jules MassenetJules MassenetJules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
)
(2001-02) - The Rake's ProgressThe Rake's ProgressThe Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
(Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
)
(1998-99)
- Of Mice and Men (Carlisle FloydCarlisle FloydCarlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
)
(2007-08) - Il Turco in ItaliaIl turco in ItaliaIl turco in Italia is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani...
(Rossini)
Non-standard repertory performed
- (BarberSamuel BarberSamuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
) VanessaVanessa (opera)Vanessa is an opera in three acts by Samuel Barber with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by... - (Bizet) Les pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
- (Bohmler) The Tale of the Nutcracker (World Première)
- (Britten) Albert HerringAlbert HerringAlbert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
and The Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive... - (CavalliFrancesco CavalliFrancesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.-Life:Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy...
) L'Ormindo - (FloydCarlisle FloydCarlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
) Of Mice and MenOf Mice and MenOf Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA.... - (HandelHANDELHANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
) SerseSerseSerse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694... - (Henderson) West of Washington Square (World Première)
- (Lehár) The Merry WidowThe Merry WidowThe Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
- (MechemKirke MechemKirke Mechem is an American composer. His first opera, Tartuffe, with nearly 400 performances in six countries, has become one of the most popular operas written by an American. He has composed more than 250 works in almost every form. In 2002, ASCAP registered performances of his music in 42...
) TartuffeTartuffe (Mechem)Tartuffe is an opera in three acts by Kirke Mechem. Mechem also wrote the English libretto. Based on the Molière's play Tartuffe, or the Impostor, it is a modern opera buffa set in Paris in the 17th century... - (Menotti) The MediumThe MediumThe Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...
and Amahl and the Night VisitorsAmahl and the Night VisitorsAmahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast... - (MolliconeHenry MolliconeHenry Mollicone is an American composer and musical instructor. He currently resides in Saratoga, California.-Career:Mollicone is known for his one-act operas, including Emperor Norton, Starbird, and The Mask of Evil. One of his most popular works is the one-act chamber opera The Face on the...
) Hotel Eden (World Première) - (Poulenc) La Voix HumaineLa voix humaineLa voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1930 play. La voix humaine was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Salle Favart in Paris on 6 February 1959...
- (Roumanis) Ode to Phaedra (World Première)
- (Stravinsky) The Rake's ProgressThe Rake's ProgressThe Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
- (Ward) The CrucibleThe Crucible (opera)The Crucible is an English language opera written by Robert Ward based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It won both the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation. The libretto was lightly adapted from Miller's text by Bernard Stambler.Ward received a...
The California Theatre
The opera company opened its 2004–2005 season in the 1,119 seat California Theatre, a former vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and film theatre designed by Weeks and Day
Weeks and Day
Weeks and Day was an American architectural firm founded in 1916 by architect Charles Peter Weeks and engineer William Peyton Day ....
. On opening day in 1927, this 1,848 seat movie palace
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
was said to be the finest theater in California. With its magnificent Jazz Age décor, it was part of a wave of ornate theaters built to define downtowns all over the country.
For nearly 50 years the theatre showed films, until its closure in 1973. It was left vacant for many years and had decayed, but reopened in 2004 after a 75 million dollar restoration project done expressly for Opera San Jose and as the result of large donations. This came as a big relief to local historians, who feared the building would be demolished like many other historic buildings in the city center.
In 2004, the California Theatre reopened as a major performing arts facility designed both for live stage performances and for motion pictures. The new theatre is filled with modern amenities in a setting of meticulously restored 1920's opulence. It has been called one of the most beautiful theatres in the state, and is now the home of Opera San Jose and Symphony Silicon Valley.
In 2004 Team San Jose
Team San Jose
Team San Jose is a non-profit management corporation launched in 2004 to promote tourism in San Jose, California...
took over management of the facility and promotes its venues and the theatre itself as a favorite place to hold events. A lavish conference facility with additional meeting rooms, and state-of-the-art audio and video technology, has been added to the original structure.