About
Opera Ithaca is an opera company located in the city of Ithaca in the state of New York. Founded in 2014, the company launched with a production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Since then, we’ve produced Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Thumbprint, Cenerentola, Hamlet, Song from the Uproar, Pagliacci, La Bohème, Cendrillon, the professional debut of Il Sogno by Kristin Hernner Wyatt, and the world premiers of Bonnie Montgomery’s Billy Blythe and We Wear the Sea Like a Coat, with music by Sally Lamb McCune and a libretto by Rachel Lampert and Yvonne Gray. In addition to our stage productions, we also provide a permanent home for our classical vocal music program concerts, as well as community engagement events throughout the greater Ithaca area.
Additional Programs
Opera Ithaca is committed to educating the singers of tomorrow. With that goal in mind, we started an Apprentice Artist Program, which provides opportunities to young singers who are in between formal training and a professional career. These young singers are cast in supporting roles, sing in the chorus, understudy principal singers and perform in concerts and community outreach events.
We are also committed to diverse programming, producing thoughtful productions of classic operatic repertoire as well as contemporary works, world premieres, and family-friendly programming. Our opera company champions the work of women by including an opera penned by a woman each season. In 2019, with the development of women-driven operatic works in mind, we launched Inside the Creative Process. This incubator series offers an inclusive look at the process of creating new works and engages the community to be an active responsive voice.
Opera Ithaca is a Professional Company Member of OPERA America.
Mission
Opera Ithaca brings professional opera to Ithaca, New York and the surrounding Finger Lakes and Southern Tier region. Opera Ithaca enriches the local arts community by providing a consistent venue for diverse classical vocal music. Opera Ithaca produces distinctive and highly theatrical productions of diverse operatic and musical theatre literature as well as concerts, lectures, and educational outreach events. Opera Ithaca engages a diverse and multi-generational audience to aid in the longevity of opera as a living art form.
Ben Robinson, Artistic Director
Gretchen Van Valen, Managing Director
Lynn Craver, Director of the Apprentice Artist Program
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Board of Directors
Deborah Montgomery, President
Andrew Cove, Treasurer
Larry Harrington, Secretary
Timothy Downs
Charles Kruzanksy
Johnine McCartney
Sally McCune
Patrice Pastore
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Barry Chester, President Emeritus
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" It has become something of a given that when opera emerges from the pandemic, the small companies will lead the way. Opera ithaca’s accomplished and imaginative film of Gianni Schicchi gives substance to that thought."
-Opera Magazine
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"Opera Ithaca’s “Gianni Schicchi” encouraged no one to rest in the chaos, because the energy was intoxicating, light, and fun. Like a social media junky who loves to consume spirals of updates and tweets, this film whets the viewer’s appetite with comedic chaos in every moment."
-OperaWire
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"Opera Ithaca has outdone itself again and promises even more for its next season."
-Ithaca Times
"Ithaca now has its own prolific and qualified opera company. Exploring the edges of the genre’s boundaries, they are building a new audience of opera goers that might just be the opposite of the urban relics of classical opera aficionados. Whatever Opera Ithaca’s upcoming projects are, they might not be what one expects from the time honored tradition, but you can be sure they will be downright innovative, fresh and exciting to watch." ​
-Cornell Daily Sun
"Entering their third season Opera Ithaca mixes world-class singers from across the U.S. with adroit direction and minimalist design. This year saw a charming Billy Blythe (Bill Clinton as a kid in Arkansas) with a blue-grass accented score, and a rousing, troubling and heroic Thumbprint, about the first woman to successfully bring her rapists to justice in Pakistan. Both were new works by women composers."
-Ithaca Times
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