New Jersey State Opera - History and Background

The New Jersey State Opera began as the Opera Theatre of Westfield in 1964. Before its 1965 season, Alfredo Silipigni was engaged as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director (the title he still holds today), and the name was changed to Opera Theatre of New Jersey. Performances were given in Westfield and Scotch Plains/Fanwood High Schools until, in November 1968, a production of Gounod’s Faust starring Jerome Hines and Licia Albanese was presented in Newark Symphony Hall, the company’s home until the opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in 1998. In 1974 the organization was renamed the New Jersey State Opera.

Over the years, the New Jersey State Opera has brought to its audiences many memorable operatic experiences. These performances included Victoria de Los Angeles’ first performance as Carmen, Beverly Sills in her first Norma in the metropolitan area, and Birgit Nilsson’s last appearance in the United States as Turandot, with a cast that included Licia Albanese as Liu and Placido Domingo as Calaf. Other unforgettable performances included Richard Tucker in La Giocanda, James McCracken in the title role of Verdi’s Otello, and in 1989 an historic evening starring Carlo Bergonzi and Roberta Peters in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, during which Bergonzi’s rendition of the great aria, Una furtiva lagrima, won an encore. The roster of great singers to appear with the company also includes: Anna Moffo, Robert Merrill, Franco Corelli, Ferrucio Tagliavini, Sherrill Milnes, Magda Olivero, Diana Soviero, Dorothy Kirsten, Giuseppe Taddei, Samuel Ramey, Theresa Kubiak, John Alexander, Adrianna Maliponte, James Morris, and Simon Estes … to name a few.

Alfredo Silipigni, New Jersey State Opera’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, has earned a much deserved reputation in the operatic world. His reputation for presenting the rare and unusual prompted music critic Andrew Porter in the London Financial Times to state “Newark may be the last place left in which to see ‘authentic’ verismo stagings.” The international stature of the New Jersey State Opera has been built on Maestro Silipigni’s magisterial performances of this repertoire, and the company has become famous for its revivals of this milieu, including Fedora, Attila, Caterina Cornaro, Adriana Lecouvreur, Zaza, Iris, Le Villi, Zanetto, and Lodoletta.

In 2000-2001, New Jersey State Opera celebrated its 35^th anniversary. Three and one-half decades as the premier Opera Company of the state has brought many accolades and accomplishments of which the company is justly proud. The company understands that to flourish for another 35 years, it must expand its mission and focus. Without relinquishing its position as the only Opera Company in New Jersey to present “grand opera” on a top-quality professional level, the New Jersey State Opera has expanded its repertoire and the scope of its offerings to attract and retain new, more diverse audiences.

The Outcast, a contemporary opera by New Jersey native Noa Ain, which dramatized the Biblical book of Ruth through a blend of European classical traditions with African-American idioms – jazz, rock and gospel – was a co-production with 651 Majestic/Brooklyn Academy of Music and Opera Ebony in 1995. In 1996, the New Jersey State Opera presented the double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Garden State Arts Center, and The Jewel Box, a “new” Mozart opera at the Community Theater of Morristown. This was a collaboration across two centuries with a modern libretto in English by Paul Griffiths, the music critic of New Yorker magazine, fitted to 26 excellent but relatively unfamiliar pieces of miscellaneous Mozart music.

During the 1996-97 season, the New Jersey State Opera staged three productions. Verdi’s Don Carlo at Newark Symphony Hall, Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the State Theater in New Brunswick, and the world premiere of its commissioned Many Moons, a family opera based on the book by James Thurber. The concert version of Many Moons debuted, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, to great acclaim. The same production was repeated in Boaton at Jordon Hall, before a sold-out audience of over 1,000. As lead company in a consortium with Opera Omaha, Opera Theater of Rochester, and BankBoston Celebrity Series, the New Jersey State Opera commissioned the 75-minute opera based on the classic fairy tale for all ages.

In addition to its principal home at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey State Opera has performed at venues throughout the tri-state area including a subscription series at the War Memorial Auditorium in Trenton. Other appearances were at Symphony Hall, Newark, NJ (our home for over 20 years), the State Theater in New Brunswick, Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, Waterloo Village in Stanhope, Resorts International in Atlantic City, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. For many summers the State Opera presented fully staged opera at the Garden State Arts Center until the facilities privatization in 1996.

The New Jersey State Opera International Vocal Competition was established in 1976 to encourage the development of promising young singers. Cash awards and performance opportunities are awarded to the winners, and assistance is provided to help them build performance careers. At the same time, as part of our mission to play a leading role in arts education throughout New Jersey, the State Opera has created an education program that reaches thousands of students each year in schools across the state as well as at dress rehearsals and performances,. Since our move to the newly opened New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in 1998, the State Opera has performed a fully staged and costumed Student Matinee with full cast, full chorus and full orchestra of one of our main-stage productions.

In the fall of 1998, the New Jersey State Opera commissioned an adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute as part of our Education/Out-reach program. This adaptation, entitled Papageno, was premiered in Paterson, NJ in January 1999. This delightful 30-minute comedy has been presented at many locations around the state and in the summer of 2001 was the cornerstone of State Opera’s very successful Opera-in-the-Park summer series. Another component of our Education/Outreach program is State Opera’s popular Operalogue series. These informative and entertaining programs include a discussion of the historical background and finer points of the music of the season’s productions by Maestro Alfredo Silipigni. The program also features musical highlights of the opera provided by members of the New Jersey State Opera Young Artist program.

The seasons since 1998, when the New Jersey State Opera moved its base of operations into Prudential Hall in The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, have seen many critical and artistic successes. Our premiere production in the newly opened theater was two triumphantly successful performances of Giocomo Puccini’s Turandot, including a sold-out house for opening night. Our 1999 NJPAC saw an increase to two performances each of two productions: Giordano’s tale of love triumphing in the dark days of the French Revolution, Andrea Chenier, and George Bizet’s immortal Carmen. For the year 2000, the New Jersey State Opera opened at NJAPC with two performances of Verdi’s monumental masterpiece, Aida. This was followed by two performances of Puccini’s Tosca, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the debut of this exciting opera. The Fall of 2000 saw the New Jersey State Opera celebrating its 35^th anniversary with a Gala Concert in Victoria Theater at NJPAC. In February of 2001, the State Opera celebrated the 100^th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death with an acclaimed production of Macbeth in Prudential Hall. Performances of Puccini’s beloved Madama Butterfly opened our 2002 season. This critically acknowledged production starred international acclaimed soprano Liping Zhang in the title role and American tenor, Antonio Nagore, as the callous Navy Lieutenant, B.F. Pinkerton. New Jersey State Opera’s 37^th season will conclude with two performances of the perennial favorite double-bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The summer of 2002 will see State Opera’s return to the parks with our Opera-in-the-Park program. We will be planning and publicizing our education program for the 2002-2003 school year, as well as preparing for our return to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with two main-stage productions in the Winter and Spring of 2003.

The New Jersey State Opera is the only company, resident or touring, in the state that presents opera productions unabridged in every aspect specializing in grand opera, with full orchestration, full chorus, internationally acclaimed singers, sets, costumes and lighting of the highest professional quality. These productions are augmented by a diverse Education and Out-reach Program and the International Vocal Competition. This has always been our mission and it will continue to be so.