The Opera Company of Boston was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active from the late 1950s through the 1980s. The company was founded by American conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1958 under the name Boston Opera Group. At one time, the touring arm of the company was called Opera New England. Caldwell served as both director and conductor for most of the company's productions throughout its more than three decade long history. Under her leadership, the company presented a repertoire of more than 75 operas that came from a wide array of musical periods and styles, including a large number of works previously unheard in the United States, and a significant amount of contemporary operas. This commitment to innovative repertoire as well as Caldwell's brilliant stage direction garnered the company international acclaim and earned it a place among the world's leading opera companies during the 1970s and 1980s. After 32 consecutive opera seasons, the company was forced to close due to financial difficulties in 1990.
Famous quotes containing the words opera, company and/or boston:
“I have witnessed, and greatly enjoyed, the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“We’re too unseparate. And going home
From company means coming to our senses.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. This generation inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an illustrious line; and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome, thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and science and literature with satisfaction.... It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)