Michigan Opera Theatre.html |
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Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) is Michigan's principal opera company. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Each year it presents a season of five operas in their original language with English supertitles. The company also has an extensive arts education and outreach program, and in 2005 won a National Endowment for the Arts, Access to Artistic Excellence grant to support its staging of the world premiere of Margaret Garner.1
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History
The Michigan Opera Theatre was originally established as an education and outreach arm of the Detroit Grand Opera Association by its current General Director, David DiChiera in 1963. It became a professional opera company in 1971 with productions that often featured young American opera singers from a diversity of backgrounds, a tradition that continues to this day. Among the notable artists who have sung at the MOT early in their careers are: Leona Mitchell, who sang Bess in the company's 1975 production of Porgy and Bess; Kathleen Battle, whose 1975 performance as Rosina in The Barber of Seville marked her operatic debut; Catherine Malfitano, who created the role of Catherine Sloper in MOT's world premiere staging of Washington Square in 1976; and Nicole Cabell who sang Musetta in La bohème in 2005, a few months after winning the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
World premieres
Michigan Opera Theatre has staged the world premieres of the following operas:
- Washington Square, composed by Thomas Pasatieri to a libretto by Kenward Elmslie after Henry James's novel, Washington Square. (October 1, 1976)2
- Margaret Garner, composed by Richard Danielpour to a libretto by Toni Morrison based on her novel Beloved. (May 7, 2005)3
- Cyrano composed by David DiChiera to a libretto by Bernard Uzan after Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac. (October 13, 2007)4
Notes and references
- ^ NEA Spotlight: Michigan Opera Theatre, 2005 Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- ^ Washington Square documentation on the official web site of its composer, Thomas Pasatieri. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- ^ Performance record of Margaret Garner at Michigan Opera Theatre, on the official site of Margaret Garner, an American Opera. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- ^ Performance record of Cyrano at Michigan Opera Theatre, Cyrano, the Opera official site. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- William Bender, Rite of Maturation, Time Magazine, October 18, 1976. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- Keith Bradsher, A Horn of Plenty For Opera in Detroit: How to Thrive in a Blue-Collar City, New York Times, October 28, 1999. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- Bernard Holland, Giving New Voice to Former Slave's Tale of Sacrifice, New York Times, May 9, 2005. Accessed 29 July 2008.
- Anne Midgette, Philadelphia's 'Cyrano': Actually, They Do Make 'Em Like That Anymore, Washington Post, February 15, 2008, p. C04. Accessed 29 July 2008.