Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... Nickname: Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: , Country State Counties Maricopa Incorporated February 25, 1881 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Phil Gordon (D) Area  - City  515. ... Nickname: Location in Pima County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: , Country State Counties Pima Government  - Mayor Bob Walkup (R) Area  - City  195. ... Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ...

Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first production, of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in 1972. By 1975 the company had expanded to include performances in both Tucson and Phoenix. Arizona Opera maintains offices in both cities, and a facility for production (set construction, wardrobe, and properties) and rehearsal in Tucson. The company has a subscriber base of over 10,000 drawn from the two metropolitan areas, and an annual budget of $5.5 million. Portrait Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 – November 13, 1868)[1] was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. ... The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto (based on Beaumarchaiss comedy Le Barbier de Séville) by Cesare Sterbini. ...

The appointment of Glynn Ross as general director in 1983 initiated a period of growth during which the company expanded its season from three to five productions. In 1996 and 1998 the company gained notice by staging Wagner's Ring Cycle as a summer festival in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ross retired in 1998 and was succeeded by David Speers, who enhanced the quality of the company's productions by increasing spending on rehearsals, chorus (under chorus master John Massaro), and orchestra, and under whose leadership subscriptions and single-ticket sales markedly increased. In addition to the company's regular productions, Speers brought noted singers Samuel Ramey, Kiri Te Kanawa, Denyce Graves, and Jerry Hadley to Arizona for recital performances. Glynn Ross (born December 15, 1914, Omaha, Nebraska – died July 21, 2005, Tucson, Arizona) was an American opera impresario. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as they were later called). ... Der Ring des Nibelungen, (The Ring of the Nibelung), is a cycle of four epic music dramas by the German composer Richard Wagner. ... Nickname: Location in Coconino County the state of Arizona Coordinates: , Country United States State Arizona County Coconino County Government  - Mayor Joseph C. Donaldson Area  - City  98. ... The American opera singer Samuel Edward Ramey (March 28, 1942) is considered by many the finest bass-baritone singer of his generation. ... Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa IPA: , ONZ, AC, DBE, (born March 6, 1944) is an internationally famous New Zealand opera singer. ... Denyce Graves (born March 7, 1964 in Washington, D.C.) is an American opera singer. ... Jerry Hadley (June 16, 1952 – July 18, 2007) was an American operatic tenor, who was a protegé of famous soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge. ...

During the 2000-2001 season, the company appointed its first Principal Conductor, Cal Stewart Kellogg (now director of the Mesa Symphony), and established the Arizona Opera Orchestra, made up of professional, Arizona-based musicians. Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: , Country State Counties Maricopa Government  - Mayor Keno Hawker (R) Area  - City 125. ...

Speers left the company in 2003 and was succeeded by Joel Revzen, a Juilliard-trained musician and conductor and experienced music-organization administrator. Revzen is continuing Speers' practice of mixing standard repertory with occasional productions of less-often-performed works, e.g., Menotti's The Consul, Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera, and Handel's Semele. Arizona Opera has faced financial difficulties during Revzen's tenure.[1] The Juilliard School is a performing arts conservatory in New York City, informally but definitively identified as simply Juilliard, and most famous for its musically-trained alumni. ... Gian Carlo Menotti, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944 Gian Carlo Menotti (July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian-born American composer and librettist who wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. ... The Consul is a 1950 opera with music and libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. ... Brecht redirects here. ... Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950), born in Dessau, Germany and died in New York City, was a German and in his later years, a German-American composer active from the 1920s until his death. ... Die Dreigroschenoper, original German poster from Berlin, 1928. ... George Frideric Handel, 1733 George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ... Semele is a secular oratorio by George Frideric Handel. ...

Arizona Opera offers six performances of each of its five productions per season, with four at Phoenix Symphony Hall (2,387 seats and the recipient of $18.5 million in renovations during 2004-5) and two at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall (2,277 seats).

AZOP is unusual among opera companies in that it receives most of its revenue from ticket sales, rather than from grants or individual or corporate donors. In recent years the company has sought to cut costs in the face of falling ticket sales by trimming its schedule from seven to six performances per production (one Tucson show was dropped). In the 2006-07 season a production of Grétry's "Zémire et Azore" designed by Opera Theatre of St. Louis (billed as "Beauty and the Beast") was popular with parents and Arizona Opera co-produced an original production of Verdi's Macbeth with Seattle Opera.[2] In 2007-08 a production of Britten's "Turn of the Screw" was replaced with a concert evening of "Opera Gems." Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is a summer opera festival held in St. ... VERDI is an acronym for the Italian unification movement, named after the composer Giuseppe Verdi (ardent supporter of the movement) VERDI stands for Vittorio Emmanuelle, Re D Italia (Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy) Categories: Historical stubs ... Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by Théodore Chassériau. ...

General directors

• James P. Sullivan (1971-1983)
• Glynn Ross (1983-1998)
• David Speers (1998-2003)
• Joel Revzen (2003-)

Glynn Ross (born December 15, 1914, Omaha, Nebraska – died July 21, 2005, Tucson, Arizona) was an American opera impresario. ...

External links

• Arizona Opera
• Phoenix Symphony Hall
• Tucson Music Hall
• Tucson Weekly Article: The fiscally troubled Arizona Opera brings Mozart to town
• Arizona Daily Star article: 'Macbeth' Ambitious