Opera Companies Formed Since 2000 in the US
Creators: name: Silpayamanant, Jon
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: Musicology and ethnomusicology

description: This resource is an updated version of the <em>New Opera Organizations</em>1 list first posted in 2014 and last updated in 2015. For a few years following that last update I started keeping separate databases2 of the opera companies formed since 2000 in the largest US cities which I hadn’t made public. This current page aggregates all of those separate sources and has been updated to include opera companies3 formed in the past 8 years or so. <br> One of the motivations for creating the initial list was the latest “classical music crisis” debate (ca. 2008-2016)4 and, in particular, cries of the “Death of Opera.” I felt things were overstated, especially as I’d been performing with a few of these newer organizations5 during the time. The resource has been useful for a number of folks opposite the side of those seeing opera’s death knells.6 <br> As with all of the resources, bibliographies, and lists here at Mae Mai, this is a work in progress so please bookmark and check back in occasionally. For regular updates on this page and other resources, please follow me on twitter @Silpayamanant. And as mentioned in the earlier version of this page, feel free to comment below, email me (silpayamanant@gmail.com), or post to my social media (see sidebar) for anything I might have missed or for any info that needs to be corrected. <br> <em>PUBLISHED 5/29/2023; UPDATED 6/05/2023 (404 Organizations)</em> <br> <strong>NOTES</strong> 1. In addition to the old page (Silpayamanant, 2014a) please also see the two posts with preliminary remarks (Silpayamanant, 2014b and 2014c). <br> 2. A lot of these other databases were hosted at Airtable or at Google Sheets as I was testing other ways of presenting the data. I maintained separate spreadsheets for New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, and my home state of Indiana. <br> 3. There’s been at least some debate over what constitutes an “opera company” (see comments on McLennan’s piece, 2016) but those are immaterial for my purposes for several reasons. All of the organizations above perform at opera or operettas either primarily, or partially. Most opera companies nowadays (at least in the US) often perform musicals or musical theater on occasion. Lastly, much new work blur these genres very liberally, or even create hybridized works with other non-European musical dramatic forms. Any definition that would exclude many of these groups would just as easily exclude the vast majority of organizations that most people would have no issues with calling an opera company. <br> 4. Scott Chamberlain (2014) has a nice synopsis and critique of one of some of the controversy, though I’m not sure why he credits the “What is Killing Classical Music?” chart from the New Yorker to Charles Rosen as Will Robin (2014) clearly states it was Andy Doe that created the infographic and is confirmed by Doe (2014). As the New Yorker is no longer hosting the infographic, Doe’s page is where you can find a high res version. The bottom right of the image also has the credits (Will Robin and Andy Doe) right under <em>properdiscord.com</em> (and you might also notice a couple of other familiar names there). <br> 5. I’d performed a number of productions with the Thompson Street Opera Company (while it was based in Louisville, KY) and the Soo Opera (Sault Saint Marie, MI) in addition to sharing a bill with Nanoworks Opera at a Classical Revolution Cincinnati event. <br> 6. See DuBose (2019), McLennon (2016), Rivera (2014), and Sadler (2022). While I hadn’t started the original list when Alex Ross (2013) mentioned the 1681 Christoforo Ivanovich quote about the decline of opera, that quote, and one I’d read about Handel making similar comments about the sate of opera in London, really primed me for compiling one. <br> <strong>REFERENCES</strong> Chamberlain, Scott. (2014, July 20). <em>Greg Sandow and the “Death of Opera”</em> [Online]. Mask of the Flower Prince. https://maskoftheflowerprince.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/greg-sandow-and-the-death-of-opera/. <br> Doe, Andy. (2014, January 29). <em>What’s Killing Classical Music?</em> [Online]. https://properdiscord.com/2014/01/29/whats-killing-classical-music/. <br> DuBose, Sequina. (2019). <em>The Impact of Genre Fusion and Improvisational Elements in 21st-Century Operas on Vocal Pedagogy and Performance Practice</em> [DMA Dissertation: University of Maryland]. DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland). DOI: 10.13016/rkh4-vewe. <br> McLennan, Douglas. (2016, August 2). <em>Is Opera The Real 21st Century Art Form?</em> [Online]. diacritical. https://www.artsjournal.com/diacritical/2016/08/is-opera-the-real-21st-century-art-form.html. <br> Rivera, Jennifer. (2014, October 2; updated December 2). <em>The Rumors of Opera’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated</em> (Pt. 1) [Online]. Huffpost.com. <br> Robin, Will. (2014, January 29). <em>Classical Music Isn’t Dead</em> [Online]. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-fat-lady-is-still-singing. <br> Ross, Alex. (2013, September 15). <em>The Opera Crisis at 332</em> [Online]. The Rest is Noise. https://www.therestisnoise.com/2013/09/the-opera-crisis-at-332.html. <br> Sadler, Cindy. (2022). <em>Small Opera, Big Voice: The Role of Small Opera Companies in Eliminating Elitism in Modern Opera Ecology</em> [Masters Thesis: Goucher College]. MDSOAR (Maryland Shared Open Access Repository). https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/24546. <br> Silpayamanant, Jon. (2014a, May 26; updated 2015, January January 23). <em>New Opera Organizations: Opera Companies Formed in the US Since 2000</em> [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/new-music-ensembles-in-the-us/new-opera-organizations/. <br> Silpayamanant, Jon. (2014b, May 31). <em>New Opera Companies and New Operas since 2000</em> [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/new-opera-companies-and-new-operas-since-2000/. <br> Silpayamanant, June. (2014c, June 12). <em>Opera in the 21st Century</em> [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/opera-in-the-21st-century/.