Charlottesville Opera, before 2017 known as Ash Lawn Opera,1 is an opera company, founded in 1978 in Charlottesville, Virginia. For the company's first thirty years, performances were held in the boxwood garden at Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of President James Monroe. Since 2009 performances have been held at the renovated Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville.2
Charlottesville Opera currently produces four original productions each season: a semi-staged concert opera in the spring; a full-length opera and a musical in the summer; and a holiday opera in December. In addition to the standard operatic repertoire,3 Charlottesville Opera's productions have included American musicals and 20th century American operas such as Carlisle Floyd's Susannah,4 as well as such pieces as Leonard Bernstein's Candide.5
Charlottesville Opera also provides a wide range of educational programs for youth and adults; professional training for emerging artists and interns; and seeks to enrich the cultural vitality and quality of life in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region.6
References
References
Notes
- History, Charlottesville Opera
- Blackwell & Causey 2005, "Close Up: Ashlawn Festival", pp. 341–342
- Ash Lawn's past seasons' programs Archived 2014-05-19 at the Wayback Machine on ashlawnopera.com
- "Ash Lawn Opera Announces First Year-Round Season" Archived June 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine on charlottesvillearts.org. Retrieved 8 June 2014
- Jane Dunlap Norris, "Candide unites Oratorio Society and Ash Lawn Opera for semi-staged Bernstein gem", The Daily Progress (Charlottesville), May 2, 2014
- Mary Burruss, "Ash Lawn Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors builds community" on C-Ville Weekly. Retrieved 8 June 2014
Sources
- Blackwell, Mary Alice; Anne Patterson Causey (2005), Insiders' Guide to Virginia's Blue Ridge, 9th edition. Insiders' Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7627-3460-3.