Opera Company of Boston productions

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][2]

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^[3] with Shirley Verrett, James McCracken, and Ruth Welting
• Madama Butterfly – Puccini
• Il barbiere di Siviglia – Rossini^[4]
• Don Giovanni – Mozart
• Les contes d'Hoffmann – Offenbach

1985

• Hansel and Gretel – Humperdinck^[5]

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

1. Kessler, pp. 44–45.
2. Porter, Andrew. "Musical Events: Proper Bostonian" The New Yorker, 2 June 1973, pp. 102–108. Subscription required. Accessed 27 January 2010.
3. Kessler, p. 250.
4. Kessler, p. 251.
5. The remainder of the season was cancelled due to Sarah Caldwell's hospitalization with severe pneumonia (Kessler, pp. 158–159).

Sources

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

Further reading

• Caldwell, Sarah & Rebecca Matlock (2008). Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6885-4.