Dallas Opera

The Dallas Opera is an opera company located in Dallas, Texas (USA). The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic Opera by Laurence Kelly and Nicolà Rescigno, both of whom had been active with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first as administrator, the second as artistic director.

The company made its mark in American opera long before the upsurge of regional opera in the US.^[1]Maria Callas opened the Civic Opera's first season with an inaugural recital conducted by Rescigno. She returned the following year to perform in La traviata in a production by Franco Zeffirelli and in Medea, directed by the Greek director, Alexis Minotis, two of her infrequent performances in the United States. According to John Ardoin, the long-time music critic for The Dallas Morning News,^[2] she sang in Lucia di Lammermoor in the 1958 season. Callas' rehearsal, with Resigno conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, on 20 November 1957 was recorded, as was her performance in Medea on 6 November 1958.

Of the company's successes, one writer notes that "the Dallas Opera may have been just beginning, but what they accomplished was of the highest standard",^[3] while, in an interview, John Ardoin outlines the role of Laurence Kelly:

“Everything must ride or fall on the taste of one man…. As it did with Kelly and his company. He went through all kinds of crap for 10 months out of the year -- mean fund-raising and playing social games and all -- to do what he loved the most for two months out of the year. And Kelly didn't care if you did Aida, or Rigoletto, or Carmen -- it just had to be the best Aida, and Rigoletto, and Carmen. He would agonize over it, and think it out. Nothing was ever casual with him, in the casting or the productions. That's not to say he didn't make mistake. But, ultimately, it was his taste, and his vision, and his commitment that did the trick".^[4]

Many singers have made their American debut in Dallas, such as Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Gwyneth Jones, Waltraud Meier, Magda Olivero, Joan Sutherland, and Jon Vickers. Designer/director Franco Zeffirelli also made his US debut there. Dallas also has helped launch the careers of such American singers as Renée Fleming, Diana Soviero, and Ruth Ann Swenson.

The Dallas Opera commissioned Dominick Argento’s The Aspern Papers and gave its world premiere, which was nationally broadcast to four million viewers on PBS's “Great Performances” series in 1988. The Dallas Opera's first commission was for Robert Xavier Rodriguez's one-act children's opera Monkey See, Monkey Do in 1985. Additional commissions were for Tobias Picker's Thérèse Raquin in 2001 and Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick in 2010.

Anthony Whitworth-Jones became general manager in 2001. However, his plans for expanding the company's repertory did not come to fruition in the wake of an economic downturn during his tenure, and he stood down from the post in 2003.^[5] His successor, Karen Stone, was appointed in mid-2003 as the fifth General Director of the company. She had previously worked with Graeme Jenkins at the Cologne Opera in Germany, where he was principal guest conductor. In August 2007, Stone announced her resignation from the general directorship of Dallas Opera effective 30 September 2007.^[6] The current general director is Keith Cerny, who began his tenure with Dallas Opera in May 2010.

The current Music Director of the Dallas Opera is the English conductor Graeme Jenkins, who has held the post since 1994. In May 2011, the Dallas Opera announced the conclusion of Jenkins' tenure after the 2012-2013 season, after which he is scheduled to take the title of Music Director Emeritus.^[7]

From 1957 to 2009 the Dallas Opera performed in the historic Music Hall at Fair Park. The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, one venue of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, became the opera's new home for the inaugural 2009-2010 Season, which includes the world premiere of Moby-Dick by composer Jake Heggie. Musical Director Graeme Jenkins believes that the new venue will prove an engine of growth for the company, and predicts that, within five years, it will be operating on a par with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera.^[1]

• Ardoin, John, The Callas Legacy, Old Tappan, New Jersey: Scribner and Sons, 1991 ISBN 0-684-19306-X
• Ardoin, John and Fitzgerald, Gerald, Callas: The Art and the Life, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974, ISBN 0-03-011486-1

• Cantrell, Scott, "And That Spells Dallas", Opera News, November 2006 (Account of 50th Anniversary season under General Director, Karen Stone)
• Davis, Ronald L, (with foreword by) Miller, Henry S, Jr., La Scala West: The Dallas Opera Under Kelly and Rescigno, University Park, Texas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2000

• Dallas Opera website
• Dallas Opera's Young Professional Group website
• Meet Me at the Opera website