In just over two decades of existence, LA Opera has become, under the leadership of Eli and Edythe Broad General Director Plácido Domingo, the United States' fourth largest opera company and now "...stands out as a newly important force in American Opera." (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times). The 2008/09 Season, which will run from September 6, 2008, to June 21, 2009, features nine productions, including a new production of Puccini's Il Trittico, a trilogy of one-act operas directed by William Friedkin (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica) and by Woody Allen (Gianni Schicchi) in his operatic debut; the U.S. premiere of Howard Shore's The Fly, commissioned by LA Opera, with libretto by David Henry Hwang, directed by David Cronenberg; a revival of Puccini's Madama Butterfly directed and designed by Robert Wilson; a revival of Bizet's Carmen; a revival of Die Zauberflöte; the first two installments of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, with new productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre directed and designed by Achim Freyer; a rare staging of Walter Braunfels' The Birds (Die Vögel) as part of the Company's Recovered Voices project; and a revival of Verdi's La Traviata starring Marina Poplavskaya and Elizabeth Futral. James Conlon will conduct six of the nine productions, and the other conductors for the season are Plácido Domingo, Emmanuel Villaume and Grant Gershon (the Company's Associate Conductor / Chorus Master).
LA Opera created a sensation with its debut production of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo in October 1986. Under the leadership of Founding General Director Peter Hemmings and then Plácido Domingo, LA Opera has grown to become a company of international stature. Presenting leading productions in the standard repertory as well as new and rarely-staged operas, the Company brings prominent Los Angeles artists together with other world-renowned singers, designers, directors and conductors to create opera that attracts the attention of international audiences and critics.
LA Opera has taken several significant steps in recent years to nurture its tradition of artistic excellence. Plácido Domingo served as the Company's Artistic Consultant from 1984 until October 1998, when Mr. Domingo was named Artistic Director Designate. The 2001-2002 Season marked Mr. Domingo's first fully planned season with the Company as Artistic Director and included eight Company Premieres. In May 2003, Mr. Domingo was named General Director of LA Opera. In September 2006, in honor of a $6 million gift from Eli and Edythe L. Broad as lead sponsors of the Company’s first Ring cycle, his title became The Eli and Edythe Broad General Director. In addition, Mr. Domingo has sung well over 100 performances with the Company and has also conducted many notable productions including La Traviata, Rigoletto, La Bohème and Tosca.
Kent Nagano joined LA Opera as Principal Conductor in the 2001-2002 Season, taking the podium to lead such memorable productions as Lohengrin, directed by Maximilian Schell; Turandot, with a new ending by revered Italian composer Luiciano Berio; and Duke Bluebeard's Castle / Gianni Schicchi, directed by William Friedkin. In May 2003, Maestro Nagano was named LA Opera's first ever Music Director, a position held through the end of the 2005-2006 Season. In 2006, one of the world’s preeminent conductors James Conlon became Music Director. Maestro Conlon’s three-year contract commenced on July 1, 2006. He conducted four productions during his debut season and conducted five productions during the 2006/07 Season. He will also conduct the Company’s upcoming Ring cycle in 2010.
Since its inception, LA Opera has served nearly one million students, senior citizens, and other audiences through its internationally recognized Education and Community Programs. The Company also presents free dress rehearsals of select operas for such groups as low-income seniors and Los Angeles County schoolchildren. LA Opera's participatory In-School Opera Program, which serves as a national model, brings Company artists into area schools to work with students from elementary through high school levels producing performances as well as providing an opportunity for students to learn about opera. Teachers of all grade levels are also invited to learn about opera through a special year-long seminar series.
Throughout its history, the Company has also maintained a talented roster of Resident Artists – young singers who perform regularly in mainstage productions as well as the Company's community programs. The program prepares young artists who have the potential for major careers in opera by providing invaluable experience and training. Among the distinguished artists who have gone on to enjoy national and international success are Rodney Gilfry and Paula Rasmussen. Beginning with the 2006-2007 Season, the new Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program was inaugurated, with its own separate staff under the personal supervision of Plácido Domingo. The Program is designed so that participants can work full-time on developing their careers during the critical stage between the end of their formal academic or conservatory training and the onset of professional performing careers.
Support groups such as Hispanics for LA Opera, African-Americans for LA Opera and the Opera League of Los Angeles seek to increase involvement in, and attendance at, LA Opera performances and special events.
The Company has benefited enormously through the years from individual and corporate donors both large and small. In particular, LA Opera celebrates the vision, boldness and extraordinary generosity of the "Founding Angels," a group of benefactors led by Warner Henry, whose commitment to the Company ensures the future of opera in Los Angeles.
LA Opera traces its roots back to 1948, when a company called the Los Angeles Civic Grand Opera presented a performance of Rigoletto in a church hall in Beverly Hills. The Company, under the directorship of Francesco Pace, staged productions through the 1950s, and in 1964 it presented the first opera in the brand-new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, one of four theaters that currently comprise the Music Center.
Shortly after its third production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Italian Girl in Algiers starring Marilyn Horne, the Company abandoned its own production projects and recreated itself as the Music Center Opera Association. For two decades, the Association brought opera from other cities to the Music Center. By far the lengthiest arrangement was with New York City Opera, which brought productions to the Music Center every fall from 1966 to 1982.
In 1984, the Music Center Opera Association hired Peter Hemmings as its Founding General Director and gave him the task of creating a local opera company which would once again present its own productions. It was through this important turn of events that LA Opera was born. Mr. Hemmings stepped down as LA Opera's General Director in 2000, and the following season Plácido Domingo assumed leadership of the Company.
Company Highlights Include:
1986-87: The Company's debut production of Verdi's Otello with Plácido Domingo and Richard Strauss' Salome, directed by Sir Peter Hall with Maria Ewing.
1987-88: A daring new production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta, directed by Jonathan Miller and designed by David Hockney.
1988-89: Janácek's Katya Kabanova starring Leonie Rysanek, directed by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Jiri Kout.
1990-91: A co-production of John Adams' Nixon in China under the direction of Peter Sellars. The production was later nationally broadcast, winning an Emmy Award.
1991-92: Berlioz' The Trojans, directed by Francesco Zambello and designed by John Conklin - only the second time the piece had been staged in the U.S. The World Premiere of the Aulis Sallinen opera Kullervo, in conjunction with the Finnish National Opera.
1992-93: Janácek's The Makropulos Case in a co-production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The Magic Flute, designed by British artist and satirist Gerald Scarfe and directed by Peter Hall.
1993-94: A new production of La Bohème staged by film director Herbert Ross; a critically acclaimed production of Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, designed by David Hockney; and a rare staging of Manuel Penella's El Gato Montés with Plácido Domingo that was later broadcast nationally on PBS' Great Performances.
1994-95: A critically acclaimed production of Handel's Xerxes directed by Stephen Wadsworth and Peter Sellars' controversial staging of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
1995-96: A production of Verdi's Stiffelio with Plácido Domingo and the LA Opera debut of Jennifer Larmore in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri.
1996-97: A Franco Zeffirelli-directed Pagliacci starring Plácido Domingo and Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria directed by Pierre Audi.
1997-98: The West Coast Premiere of Daniel Catán's new Spanish-language opera Florencia en el Amazonas, and the Company's first production of Verdi's Il Trovatore.
1998-99: LA Opera's first World Premiere of an opera by an American composer, Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
1999-00: Premiere of new LA Opera productions of Bellini's The Capulets and the Montagues directed by Thor Steingraber and Verdi's Rigoletto directed by film director Bruce Beresford and the Company's first production of Britten's Billy Budd, starring Rodney Gilfry.
2000-01: LA Opera's premiere of three new performances: Verdi's Aida; Britten's Peter Grimes, starring Philip Langridge; and Handel's masterpiece Giulio Cesare, featuring the unique countertenor voices of David Daniels, Bejun Mehta and David Walker.
2001-02: Plácido Domingo's first season as Artistic Director with eight Company Premieres: The Queen of Spades, Lohengrin, The Merry Widow, Moses und Aron, Mass in B minor, Turandot, Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Gianni Schicchi; of these, The Queen of Spades, Lohengrin, Mass in B minor, Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Gianni Schicchi were new productions.
2002-03: Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West, starring Catherine Malfitano and Plácido Domingo; Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk featuring the soloists, chorus and orchestra of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre (Kirov).
2003-04: New Productions of La Damnation de Faust designed and directed by Achim Fryer, Madama Butterfly designed and directed by Robert Wilson and Le Nozze di Figaro directed by Ian Judge; the World Premiere of Deborah Drattell's Nicholas and Alexandra and a revival of the landmark David Hockney designed Die Frau ohne Schatten.
2004-05: New Productions of Vanessa (starring Kiri Te Kanawa in her final operatic performances), Roméo et Juliette (with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón), Ariadne auf Naxos (directed by William Friedkin) and Der Rosenkavalier (directed by Maximilian Schell), as well as Idomeneo (with Plácido Domingo), La Bohème (with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu), Aida (with Michele Crider) and Falstaff (with Bryn Terfel).
2005-06: The World Premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel, directed by Julie Taymor; New Productions of The Grand Duchess (directed by Garry Marshall) and La Traviata (directed by Marta Domingo).
2006-07: La Traviata starring Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón and Renato Bruson; new productions of Don Carlo with Salvatore Licitra, Dolora Zajick and Ferruccio Furlanetto and Manon with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón; a new production of Hansel and Gretel directed and designed by Douglas Fitch; a new production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone; debut season of Music Director James Conlon.
2007-08: A gala concert performance of the Verdi Requiem conducted by Plácido Domingo; a Pier'Alli production of Beethoven's Fidelio starring Anja Kampe and Klaus Florian Vogt conducted by James Conlon; the Company premiere of Janácek's Jenufa starring Karita Mattila and Eva Urbanova; a revival of the Company's landmark production of Tristan und Isolde designed by David Hockney; a new production of Verdi's Otello starring Ian Storey; a Recovered Voices double bill of Zemlinsky's The Dwarf (Company premiere) with Ullmann's The Broken Jug (U.S. premiere)
(Last updated September 2008.)
Form 990 - June 30, 2005
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Financial Statements - 2005
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Financial Statements - 2005-06
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