Opera Company of Boston productions explained

This list includes opera productions of the Opera Group and Opera Company of Boston from 1958 to 1990.

1958 - 59

• Voyage to the Moon  - Offenbach (first American performance)
• La bohème  - Puccini
• The Barber of Seville  - Rossini
• The Beggar's Opera  - Gay

1959 - 60

• Tosca  - Puccini
• Voyage to the Moon  - Offenbach
• Hansel and Gretel  - Humperdinck
• Carmen  - Bizet

1960 - 61

• La traviata  - Verdi
• Otello  - Verdi
• Hansel and Gretel  - Humperdinck
• Falstaff  - Verdi
• La bohème  - Puccini
• Die Fledermaus  - Johann Strauss

1961 - 62

• Command Performance  - Robert Middleton (world premiere)
• Manon  - Massenet
• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg  - Wagner
• Rigoletto  - Verdi

1962 - 63

• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• The Barber of Seville  - Rossini
• Faust  - Gounod

1964

• Lulu  - Berg (2-act version, in English, US East Coast premiere)
• The Magic Flute  - Mozart
• I Puritani  - Bellini
• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• L'Elisir d'Amore  - Donizetti

1965

• The Abduction from the Seraglio  - Mozart
• Semiramide  - Rossini
• Intolleranza  - Nono (first American performance)
• The Tales of Hoffmann  - Offenbach (in English)
• Boris Godunov  - Mussorgsky (first American performance of original version)

1966

• Don Giovanni  - Mozart
• Boris Godunov  - Mussorgsky
• Hippolyte et Aricie  - Rameau (first American performance)
• Moses and Aron  - Schoenberg (first American performance)

1967

• Don Giovanni  - Mozart
• Otello  - Verdi
• The Rake's Progress  - Stravinsky
• Bartók double bill:
  • Bluebeard's Castle (in Hungarian)
  • The Miraculous Mandarin (pantomime ballet)
• Tosca  - Puccini

1968

• Tosca  - Puccini
• Lulu  - Berg
• Carmen  - Bizet
• La traviata  - Verdi
• Falstaff  - Verdi

1969

• Bartók triple bill:
  • Bluebeard's Castle (in Hungarian)
  • The Miraculous Mandarin (pantomime ballet)
  • The Wooden Prince (pantomime ballet)
• Lucia di Lammermoor  - Donizetti
• Macbeth  - Verdi (original 1847 version in Italian)
• The Marriage of Figaro  - Mozart (in English)

1970

• Der fliegende Holländer  - Wagner
• La fille du régiment  - Donizetti
• The Good Soldier Schweik  - Kurka
• The Fisherman and His Wife  - Schuller (world premiere)
• Rigoletto  - Verdi

1971

• Louise  - Charpentier
• La finta giardiniera  - Moazrt
• Norma  - Bellini

1972

• Les Troyens  - Berlioz (first American performance of complete version)
• Tosca  - Puccini
• La traviata  - Verdi

1973

• The Bartered Bride  - Smetana (in English)
• The Daughter of the Regiment  - Donizetti (in English)
• Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny  - Weill
• Don Carlos  - Verdi (5-act version in French, including 21 minutes of music cut from the Paris premiere)^[1]

1974

• Don Quichotte  - Massenet
• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• War and Peace  - Prokofiev (American stage premiere)
• Il barbiere di Siviglia  - Rossini

1975

• Falstaff  - Verdi
• Così fan tutte  - Mozart
• Benvenuto Cellini  - Berlioz (first American performance)
• I Capuleti e i Montecchi  - Bellini

1976

• Fidelio  - Beethoven
• Montezuma  - Sessions (first American performance)
• The Girl of the Golden West  - Puccini (in English)
• Macbeth  - Verdi (1865 version in Italian)

1977

• Ruslan and Ludmila  - Glinka
• La bohème  - Puccini (in English)
• Rigoletto  - Verdi
• Orfeo ed Euridice  - Gluck (in Italian)
• Orpheus in the Underworld  - Offenbach (in English)

1978

• Stiffelio  - Verdi
• Damnation of Faust  - Berlioz (in English)
• Don Pasquale  - Donizetti
• Tosca  - Puccini

1979

• Falstaff  - Verdi
• Falla double bill:
  • La vida breve
  • El retablo de maese Pedro
• Il barbiere di Siviglia  - Rossini
• The Ice Break  - Tippett (American premiere)
• Hansel and Gretel  - Humperdinck

1980

• Die Fledermaus  - Johann Strauss
• Der fliegende Holländer  - Wagner
• War and Peace  - Prokofiev
• Aida  - Verdi

1981

• Faust  - Gounod
• Der Rosenkavalier  - Richard Strauss
• Rigoletto  - Verdi
• Otello  - Verdi

1982

• Die Soldaten  - Zimmermann (in English, American premiere)
• Aida  - Verdi
• La bohème  - Puccini
• Orpheus in the Underworld  - Offenbach (in English)

1983

• Carmen  - Bizet
• The Invisible City of Kitezh  - Rimsky-Korsakov
• Norma  - Bellini
• Turandot  - Puccini

1984

• Der Freischütz  - Weber
• Silver Anniversary Opera Gala with Shirley Verrett, James McCracken, and Ruth Welting
• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• Il barbiere di Siviglia  - Rossini
• Don Giovanni  - Mozart
• Les contes d'Hoffmann  - Offenbach

1985

• Hansel and Gretel  - Humperdinck^[2]

1986

• Turandot  - Puccini
• Taverner  - Davies
• The Makropulos Case  - Janáček
• Tosca  - Puccini

1987

• Il trovatore  - Verdi
• Giulio Cesare  - Handel
• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• Don Pasquale  - Donizetti

1988

• Médée  - Cherubini (in French with classical Greek dialog)
• Dead Souls  - Shchedrin (American premiere)
• The Threepenny Opera  - Weill
• La traviata  - Verdi

1989

• Mass  - Bernstein
• Aida  - Verdi
• Der Rosenkavalier  - Richard Strauss
• La bohème  - Puccini

1990

• Madama Butterfly  - Puccini
• The Magic Flute  - Mozart
• The Balcony  - Robert DiDomenica (world premiere)

References

Notes

Sources

• Book: Kessler, Daniel. 2008. Sarah Caldwell; The First Woman of Opera. Lanham, Maryland. Scarecrow Press. 0-8108-6110-0. .

Further reading

• Caldwell, Sarah & Rebecca Matlock (2008). Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. .

Notes and References

1. Porter, Andrew. "Musical Events: Proper Bostonian" The New Yorker, 2 June 1973, pp. 102 - 108. Subscription required. Accessed 27 January 2010.
2. The remainder of the season was cancelled due to Sarah Caldwell's hospitalization with severe pneumonia .