Opera for All Seasons: 60 Years of Indiana University Opera Theater

From operas presented in reconfigured army barracks to those mounted on a stage rivaling that of New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Indiana University Opera Theater has grown into a world-class training ground for opera's next generation. A lavishly illustrated history, Opera for All Seasons captures the excitement, hard work, and talent that distinguish each performance and that have made IU Opera Theater what it is today. More than 300 photos and drawings illustrate six decades of opera production from the inaugural Tales of Hoffman, a legendary Parsifal, and a performance of Martin's Greek Passion at the Met, to the 2008 La Bohème--the first opera streamed live on the internet from Indiana University to a worldwide audience. Opera lovers will delight in this sumptuous memento of IU Opera Theater's glorious history.

"It's the best performance in my life and my most important work." --Ned Rorem, on IU Opera Theater world premiere of Our Town

"A treasure trove of pleasure for opera lovers, Opera for All Seasons also manifests the profundity and charm of this art form for those who may have little experience or knowledge of it." --Bloom

"The Indiana University Opera Theater has struck me as just about the most serious and consistently satisfying of all American opera companies." --Andrew Porter, The New Yorker Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

"An analytical book it is not. A critical history it is not. Take it for what it is: a lavish, illustration-rich, coffee table-worthy, and fascinating-to-look-through panorama in print of the Indiana University Opera Theater's first 60 years." --The Herald Times

"Graduates of the Jacobs School of Music and the many thousands of opera lovers who have attended the theater over the decades will appreciate the book's evocative rendering of past productions." --Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 107, No. 1, March 2011

"The Indiana University Opera Theater... [has] celebrated its 60th anniversary. Throughout those 60 years, it has become one of the most respected opera companies in the United States... The most striking feature of this book is, without a doubt, its visual impact. It contains almost 500 pages of beautiful, striking, and detailed photographs, both in color and black and white, of various productions over the company's 60-year history... It gives a thorough pictorial history of a very impressive and renowned program." --Music Reference Services Quarterly Indiana University Press

Celebrating one of the world's finest opera programs

Marianne Williams Tobias is author of Classical Music Without Fear: A Guide for General Audiences (IUP, 2003) and an accomplished pianist, public radio commentator, lecturer, and writer.

Foreword by Gwyn Richards

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Premieres and Firsts

2. The Core of the Matter

3. Other Classics

4. On the Road

5. Musicals and the Light

6. Off the Beaten Path

7. Behind the Scenes

Appendix 1. Operas Performed by Season

Appendix 2. Operas Performed by Title

Appendix 3. Singers, Roles Performed, and Operas

Appendix 4. Conductors, Stage Director, Choreographer, Set Designer