His father worked for the National Coal Board and his mother was a singer with the Welsh National Opera.

* January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

The theatrical / operatic possibilities of Schoenberg's score have been realized by at least two major ensembles: the Opera Quotannis, which staged a version of Pierrot lunaire ( with singer Christine Schadeberg ) at the New School for Social Research in 1995 and, more recently, the internationally acclaimed contemporary music sextet eighth blackbird, which premiered a " cabaret opera " dramatizing the Schoenberg cycle in 2009.

* Giancarlo Monsalve international Opera singer, Cultural Ambassador of Valparaiso and UNESCO medal

There are many similarities between Nilsson and the character of Christine Daaé in Gaston Leroux's novel Phantom of the Opera, and many believe Leroux based the character on the real-life opera singer, although evidence for this is unverified.

* Tsakane Valentine Maswanganyi — Opera singer, she first came to public notice as a member of the world-famous opera band Amici Forever

* Robert McFerrin ( March 19, 1921 – November 24, 2006 ) opera singer who was the first African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and father of the Grammy Award-winning conductor-vocalist Bobby McFerrin

Opera singer Richard Bonelli was born here as Jacob Bunn.

* Edyth Walker, American opera singer of the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera, born in Hopewell ( 1867 ).

* Opera singer Stephanie Blythe

* Michael Ballam – noted opera singer, founder of Utah Festival Opera Company

His eldest daughter, Theresa Rassam, born in 1871, was a professional singer who sang with the D ' Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Opera singer Emmy Destinn wearing a plume-covered hat, around 1909.

In London the previous year, Senesino, a singer who had been a part of Handel's " Second Academy " which performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, quarrelled with Handel and established a rival company, the Opera of the Nobility, operating from a theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Opera singer Sir Peter Pears ( 1910 – 1986 ) was born in Farnham and Jessie Matthews, OBE ( 1907 – 1981 ), the popular English actress, dancer, and singer of the 1930s to 1960s, lived in Farnham, where she ran the Alliance public house ( now closed ).

* September 27 – Helen Traubel ends her long association with the Metropolitan Opera, after having appeared in Chicago as a night-club singer ( Anon.

Igor Stravinsky was the son of Fyodor Stravinsky, the principal bass at the Imperial Opera, St Petersburg, and Anna, née Kholodovskaya, a competent amateur singer and pianist from an old-established Russian family.

* Opera singer Amelita Galli marries the Marchese Luigi Curci, and acquires the name by which she becomes best-known.

* The World's Fair Colored Opera Company, with featured singer, soprano Matilda Sissieretta Jones were the first African-American performers to appear at Carnegie Hall

The following year she received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Sarah and Son ( 1930 ), portraying an impoverished housewife who rises to fame and fortune as an Opera singer.

With a mezzo-soprano voice, she had hopes of becoming an opera singer, but did not pass the audition with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Opera – Berlioz, Les Troyens, Ben Heppner / Michelle DeYoung / Petra Lang / Sara Mingardo / Peter Mattei / Stephen Milling / Kenneth Tarver / Toby Spence / Orlin Annastassov / Tigran Martirossian / Isabelle Cals / Alan Ewing / Guang Yang / Andrew Greenan / Roderick Earle / Bülent Bezd ( LSO Live )

Toby Spence has on-going connections with English National Opera ( ENO ), and is a strong believer of the policy of singing in English.

In an interview for the Paris Opera in 2008 Spence named Arsène Wenger as his non-musical hero.

he became Otto Klemperer's personal assistant at the Cologne Opera, and a year later was promoted to the position of regular conductor.

Five years were spent with the Cologne Opera, after which he was called to Prague by Alexander von Zemlinsky, teacher of Arnold Schonberg and Erich Korngold.

Opera lovers will be interested to learn that this church was the scene for the first act of Tosca.

This production was recorded on DVD, and subsequently won the 2009 Grammy Awards for " Best Classical Album " and " Best Opera Recording.

Michigan Opera Theatre was the first major American opera company to present the work in 1983, and again in November 2009.

For example, it was added to the New York City Opera Company repertoire in 1990.

At the time of Lerner's death, he had just begun to write lyrics for The Phantom of the Opera, and was replaced by Charles Hart.

The first, most important and successful was The Beggar's Opera of 1728, with a libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch, both of whom probably influenced by Parisian vaudeville and the burlesques and musical plays of Thomas D ' Urfey ( 1653 – 1723 ), a number of whose collected ballads they used in their work.

In the 20th century, one of the most influential plays, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's ( 1928 ) The Threepenny Opera was a reworking of The Beggar's Opera, setting a similar story with the same characters, and containing much of the same satirical bite, but only using one tune from the original.

In addition the Theater Basel was chosen in 1999 as the best stage for German-language performances and in 2009 & 2010 as " Opera of the Year " by German Opera Magazine " Opernwelt ".

Opera or other vocal music was the feature of most musical events, with concertos and " symphonies " ( arising from the overture ) serving as instrumental interludes and introductions for operas and church services.

The Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe quoted parts of it in his opera or music theatre work Rites of Passage ( 1972-73 ), which was commissioned for the opening of the Sydney Opera House but was not ready in time.

The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian Chicagoans in 1956, and presents operas in Lithuanian.

The building was designed by the famed architect Wallace Harrison, who would later design the similar-looking façade of Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.

She was awarded a contract with the Royal Opera in London and made her début at Covent Garden as Marie in La Fille du régiment in 1876.

Algarotti's Essay on the Opera ( 1755 ) was a major influence on the librettist Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni and the composer Tommaso Traetta, and in the development of Gluck's reformist ideology.

The Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro ( OND ) or " National After-work Program " was one major social welfare initiative in Fascist Italy.

This was commissioned by, and first performed at, the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie.

During his senior year, he worked as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, earning 50 ¢ per appearance, and $ 1 if he was required to perform in blackface.

In 1847, I Lombardi, which was revised and renamed Jérusalem, was produced by the Paris Opera.

It could be said that Martyr was the 15th opera of the partnership, since the Carl Rosa Opera Company presented the work as an opera in 1898.