In 1950, building on earlier amateur efforts, Baltimore Opera was formally established as the Baltimore Civic Opera Company, with the famous American
soprano Rosa Ponselle as its first
artistic director. She brought
Beverly Sills to Baltimore for a production of
Manon in 1952. By embarking upon a program of modernization in 1960 the company attracted private funding to be able to hire professional set designers and diversify its repertoire. In 1963, the
Ford Foundation made a generous contribution that allowed the company to stabilize a format of three operas a season and to hire a full-time Production Manager. In subsequent years, it staged notable productions of such operas as
Der Rosenkavalier, in 1962, with conductor
Kurt Adler;
Rigoletto, in 1964, with
Sherrill Milnes, who also appeared as
Escamillo in
Carmen that year;
Lucia di Lammermoor, in 1965, with
Anna Moffo;
Don Giovanni, in 1966, with Sills and
Norman Treigle;
Madama Butterfly, also in 1966, with
Licia Albanese;
Turandot, also in 1966, with
Birgit Nilsson and
Teresa Stratas;
The Tales of Hoffmann in 1967 with Sills,
Plácido Domingo, and Treigle; and
Boris Godunov, also in 1967, with Treigle. The name Baltimore Civic Opera Company was changed to Baltimore Opera Company in 1970 since the word "civic" denoted amateurism, a term deemed no longer applicable to the company's offerings. For the occasion of the
American Bicentennial in 1976, the Company appropriately commissioned its first work, opera
Inês de Castro, composed by
Thomas Pasatieri with a libretto by Bernard Stambler. This work was a major American operatic event and featured a cast that included
Richard Stilwell,
James Morris, and
Lili Chookasian, with staging by
Tito Capobianco. In 1993, Baltimore Opera inaugurated its Summer Aria Series, dedicated to works by American composers and, in the following year, a sizable grant was awarded to the BOC by the National Arts Stabilization Fund in order to give the company complete financial stability. The 1994/1995 season saw additional subscription performance offered for each opera. Formerly, the company mounted four productions a year, one example being the 2007/2008 season which consisted of
Verdi's La forza del destino,
Donizetti's Maria Stuarda,
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and
Puccini's Madama Butterfly. After the BOC collapse in 2009, several companies emerged in an attempt to continue making opera performances available to Baltimore. Baltimore Concert Opera, founded by baritone Brenden Cooke, mounted a concert performance of
Don Giovanni using volunteer singers after the BOC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, expecting the BOC to reorganize and re-emerge. When that did not come to pass, Baltimore Concert Opera incorporated and started to regularly perform concert operas in the ballroom of Baltimore's Garrett-Jacobs Mansion with professional musicians. The Baltimore Concert Opera rebranded as Opera Baltimore in 2022 after mounting a fully-staged
Barber of Seville and has continued to produce both concert operas and fully-staged opera performances. Several staff members and trustees of the BOC attempted to revive the company and re-incorporated as Lyric Opera Baltimore. This company mounted productions at the BOC's old venue, the Lyric Opera House from 2011 until 2017 before it also failed. Lyric Opera Baltimore then re-organized as Maryland Opera, which now performs operatic arias and scenes in various local churches. ==References==