Summer Opera Theatre Company, Washington DC

Founded in Founded in 1978, Summer Opera Theatre Company is a nationally recognized company that seeks, promotes and presents young artists ready for work with major opera and musical theatre companies, offers more established artists the opportunity to prepare and perform new roles before a critical audience, and brings fully mounted professional opera to the public at the lowest possible ticket prices.

Summer Opera has concluded three successful decades and is firmly established as a major opera company with a national reputation for musical and dramatic excellence. Ranked as Washington’s second oldest and second largest opera company, Summer Opera brings the Washington metropolitan area exciting dramatic works at the highest level of excellence.

Summer Opera began as a regional company but soon evolved into a company national in scope and reputation due to the recognized quality of its productions and the success of its artists who were discovered and nurtured by the company. Summer Opera artists now sing principal roles with the major house of the United States, Europe, and the Far East including The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Baltimore Opera, Dallas Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Miami Opera, and San Francisco Opera. Conductors, designers, stage managers and technicians have also found comparable success with major companies following their time with Summer Opera.

Summer Opera is proud to be a partner organization with The Harman Center for the Arts, a new, state-of the- art performance venue in the exciting Penn Quarter neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Summer Opera performed at the Harman Center for the first time in 2008 and will perform the 2009 season there as well. For the first 30 years of Summer Opera’s existence, the company performed at Catholic University of America, in the Hartke Theatre. Summer Opera remains a company is residence at Catholic University and is proud to partner with the university on educational programming.

In August 2009, Summer Opera will produce Verdi’s La Traviata and Lehar’s The Merry Widow in rotating repertory at the Harman Center.