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San Diego Opera, ranked by OPERA AMERICA as one of the top 10 opera companies in
the United States, is a widely respected member of the international opera
community and an invaluable cultural resource to the San Diego community. The
Company is both a national and regional model for all arts organizations in
terms of artistic product, impact of community education and outreach and
consistently sure-footed fiscal management. In light of these qualities, San
Diego Opera was recently honored as one of 13 "Cornerstone Arts
Organizations" by the prestigious James Irvine Foundation. In addition, San
Diego Opera is the only San Diego arts organization to receive an almost perfect
ranking from both the California Arts Council and the City of San Diego
Commission for Arts & Culture.
San Diego Opera was founded in 1950 to present San Francisco Opera productions
in the San Diego community, and became a producing company in its own right in
1965 with its first staging of La bohème in the new Civic Theatre. From
1965 to his death in 1975, founding General Director Walter Herbert produced a
balance of standard repertoire and new works.
Beginning in 1976, General Director Tito Capobianco brought the Company
international renown with an annual Verdi Festival and expanded the season to
six productions, featuring renowned superstars such as Joan Sutherland, Luciano
Pavarotti and Beverly Sills.
Ian Campbell, Assistant Artistic Administrator at the Metropolitan Opera,
succeeded Capobianco in 1983. Mr. Campbell immediately brought the Company to
fiscal stability and has achieved a balanced budget every year since. While
maintaining financial stability and increasing the audience base, Campbell
expanded the season, instituted a concert program to bring major international
stars to San Diego and launched the North American Voices Project.
Campbell also expanded San Diego Opera’s educational outreach into the largest
and most diverse offering of any American opera company.
San Diego Opera’s acclaimed productions regularly bring internationally renowned
artists to perform in San Diego throughout our five month season. Our award
winning Operation: Opera program is one of the most
extensive and diverse opera education and outreach programs in North America,
bringing music and arts to 100,000 schoolchildren in San Diego County
and Northern Mexico. The North American Voices Project, instituted in
1993, became a model for opera companies throughout the United States, adding
contemporary American operas to complement the traditional repertoire each
season.
Our passionate belief in our mission and our art form compels
us to seek new audiences for opera, to enrich lives and stir
the imaginations of all who open themselves to its uniquely magical allure.
San Diego Opera will continue to explore every means of serving its audiences
and community with the finest artistic and educational product it can offer. We
are committed to both full participation in the civic and the cultural life of
San Diego, and will endeavor always to do our part in realizing the evolving
vision of "America's finest city."
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