Opera in the United States dates to the 18th century.
The first opera known to have been performed in the American colonies was the ballad opera Flora, which was performed in Charleston, South Carolina on February 8<sup>th</sup>, 1735. Later in the century, The Beggar's Opera was performed in New York City in 1750. This continued the trend of the popularity of ballad operas.
Opera in New Orleans began prior to the Louisiana Purchase, with the first recorded opera being a performance of André Grétry's Sylvain in May 1796. In January 1808, the Théâtre St. Philippe was opened with the U.S. Premiere of Une folie by French composer ÃÂtienne Méhul. The U.S. premiere of Cherubini's Les deux journées took place there in March 1811. The most famous opera venue in town between 1819 and 1859 was the Théâtre d'Orléans. It was succeeded by the French Opera House, located on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. This theatre burned down in 1919, causing severe disruption to opera in the city.
The 18th century laid the foundation for the operatic tradition that would thrive in the United States in the subsequent centuries. Despite initial challenges and a limited scope, the interest in opera endured, paving the way for the expansion and diversification of the art form in the 19th century. Having had financial troubles in Europe, librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte came to the US in 1805. He settled in New York City first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he briefly ran a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons. He returned to New York to open a bookstore. He became friends with Clement Clarke Moore, and was named the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia College, an unpaid appointment. He viewed himself as an ambassador of European culture in a barbarous country. He persuaded the Spanish tenor Manuel GarcÃÂa to bring his opera troupe to New York, where they performed at the Park Theatre at Park Row in lower Manhattan.
They presented a range of Italian operas, among them The Barber of Seville by Rossini. On May 23, 1826, the Manuel Garcia troupe also performed Don Giovanni. It was the first performance of this opera in America. Manuel Garcia's daughter, Maria, sung the role of Zerlina. Da Ponte was present.
In 1833, at the age of eighty-four, Da Ponte founded the first purpose-built opera theater in the United States, the Italian Opera House. It was located on the northwest corner of Leonard and Church Streets in Manhattan and it was far superior to any theater the city had yet seen. It was a lavish, European-style building with frescoed ceilings and private boxes. But it lasted only for two seasons before the company went bankrupt. Shortly after the death of Da Ponte, his opera house burned down to the ground. It was, however, the predecessor of the New York Academy of Music and of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
During the 1800s, European opera companies embarked on tours across prominent cities in the United States, introducing timeless masterpieces to American spectators. Memorable shows played a significant role in the increasing appeal of opera. The emergence of American opera companies, such as the Academy of Music in New York City (1854) and the Boston Academy of Music (1853), marked a transition towards establishing a domestically nurtured operatic heritage. Opera in the 19th century became a cultural cornerstone, influencing literature, art, and societal norms. It played a role in shaping the cultural identity of growing cities, with the Metropolitan Opera, founded in 1883, emerging as a major institution.
While operas by Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini secured great successes, local composers had only little chances of getting staged. Especially African-American and female composers had a hard time to obtain recognition. Edmond Dédé (1827-1901) was a native of New Orleans. He fled to France and wrote the opera Morgaine in 1887; it was not performed until 2025, and then only in concert version. Neither Scott Joplin (1868âÂÂ1917) nor his widow succeeded in staging Treemonisha (1911) during their lifetimes. In another case, a composer has disappeared entirely from public view: Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869âÂÂ1957) supported himself and his own opera company during his lifetime, playing to predominantly black audiences in Harlem. He was acquainted with many African-American artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Twenty-one of his operas, as well as many of his other works, survive in Freeman's own manuscripts, and are kept in a collection of his papers at Columbia University. Nevertheless, there are practically no revivals of his operas. Shirley Graham Du Bois (1876-1977) wrote Tom-Tom, an Epic of Music and the Negro. The work was performed successfully in a Cleveland stadium in 1932. Thereafter the work was forgotten for more then 80 years. In 2001, a working score was found at Harvard. A revival is pending.
The Blues Opera, written in the 1950s, called â³maginficentâ³ by The New York Times, was never mounted in its full form. The authors were Harold Arlen (1905-1986) and Johnny Mercer (1909-1976), the subject were wealthy Black jockeys in the 1880s. "The lyrics are smart, the music gorgeous."
Throughout the entire 20th century, the Met staged only one opera by a woman, Der Wald by Ethel Smyth, an English composer. The opera Cabildo by Amy Beach (from 1932) wasn't performed until after her death which occurred in 1944. The operas by Margaret Bonds, like the Christmas opera The Ballad of the Brown King, were often relegated to community or church spaces.
The 20th century saw the rise of the "truly American" opera, characterized by drawing upon distinctly American themes, settings, and musical styles, such as jazz and gospel music. In this sense, the first American operas emerged in 1937, with the premieres of Virgil ThomsonâÂÂs Four Saints in Three Acts, based on a libretto by Gertrude Stein, and George GershwinâÂÂs Porgy and Bess. The first opera was an immediate success, but subsequently disappeared from the repertoire. The latter, however, became a long-running success and the emblematic Black Opera, despite being written and composed by three white people.
Ten years later, in 1947, immigrant Kurt Weill (1900-1950) composed the score for Street Scene, a 1929 play about a domestic tragedy in a tenement during an oppressive heat wave. The play was by Elmer Rice, the lyrics by Langston Hughes. The opera was described by John McWhorter as "dark and hopless, with angular melodies and busy ensembles â yet all of it immediately relatableon first hearing."
The American Indian opera also emerged in the early 20th century, as both Native American composers and librettists, such as Zitkala-Ã Â a (Yankton Dakota) and non-Native composers and librettists drew on Native American characters, stories, and music to create new operas.
After World War II, the Ford Foundation began financially supporting the New York City Opera, in an attempt to promote more new American operas. In 1958, at the World's fair in Brussels, American culture was represented by Susannah, an opera by Carlisle Floyd, first performed at the Florida State University in 1955. Susannah Polk, an innocent girl of 18 years, is targeted as a sinner in the small mountain town of New Hope Valley in Tennessee. In 1957, Susannah had won the New York Music Criticsâ Circle Award. It became one of the most performed American operas.
Following the example of the first European festivals â Bayreuth (1876), Verona (1913), Salzburg (1920) and Glyndebourne (1934) â also in the United States several opera festivals were established in the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. The Santa Fe Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival have emerged as platforms for showcasing innovation, experimentation, and the vibrant array of voices within the operatic tradition.
In 1957, the Santa Fe Opera was founded, then the only outdoor theatre in America exclusively designed for opera. It seated 480 and was opened with Puccinis Madama Butterfly. It was enlarged in 1968 and 1998 and now seats 2,128 plus 106 standees. It has achieved an longstanding reputation for carefully selecting young talented singers. The public can observe New Mexico sunsets and participate in traditional tailgate dining during the intermission.
Also the Wolf Trap Opera Company, established in 1971, became known as a premiere residency for emerging singers. It is located in Virginia, in the nations only National Park for the Performing Arts. Through a annual audition tour, its artists are selected from among the best classical vocalists in the USA.
The Glimmerglass Festival, founded in 1975, is located in Otsego County in Upstate New York. Each summer, more than 40 performances of four operas are offered. First the operas were performed in the Cooperstown High School Auditorium, in June 1987 the Alice Busch Opera Theater was opened. Since then, it is the venue of the festival.
Spoleto Festival USA was established by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1977 as a counterpart to the original Spoleto Festival in Italy, founded by Menotti in 1958. It is a multi-disciplinary festival with a strong focus on opera. It is located in Charleston, South Carolina.
In addition, there are summer seasons at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in Missouri, at the Des Moines Metro Opera in Iowa and at the Central City Opera in Colorado. They each present three to four operas every year.
On January 27, 1972, the world premiere of Treemonisha by Scott Joplin took place in Atlanta, using the orchestration by T. J. Anderson. The work had been completed in 1911 and although the composer's widow tried hard, she did not succeed in getting the opera performed. Only 19 years after her death, Treemonisha was brought to the stage. It was an immediate success, several productions in the States and abroad followed.
In the second half of the 20th-century, the number of American opera companies continued to grow, but operas written by American composers and librettists were often overlooked, receiving fewer performances and premieres. In the mid-1980s, a collaboration between Opera America, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation began, in hopes of reinvigorating the opera scene, particularly encouraging the creation and performance of American-written operas. The collaboration was seen as a success, particularly because of its outreach to a younger audience; additionally, technology now made it even easier to provide subtitles at performances, allowing for better comprehension of performances.
During the 20th century, American composers such as Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Leonard Bernstein emerged and gained worldwide recognition for their remarkable contributions to opera. Their works â for example Vanessa (1958), The Consul (1950) or Trouble in Tahiti (1952) â showcased a sense of confidence and individuality in American operatic expression. Also Coplands The Tender Land (1954) and Wards The Crucible (1961) deserve to be mentioned.
The American Opera Society (founded in 1951) played a crucial role in commissioning and promoting new American works, contributing to the global operatic repertoire.
The last Met National Tour took place from May 5 to May 31, 1986.It visited only four cities â Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. Among the participating artists were Grace Bumbry, Cornell MacNeil and James McCracken; among the operas performed were such hits as Aida, Carmen, La traviata and Tosca. The decision to cease the tours was taken by General Manager Bruce Crawford because they were losing roughly $ 1 million per week. After the final performance in Minneapolis the sets and props and costumes per packed into the famous Opera Train who headed back to New York.
Three American composers gained recognition worldwide in the 1980s, the 1990s and at the beginning of the new century:
The works of these composers demonstrate that the choice of themes in the USA is far more tangible and grounded in reality than current European opera productions. A significant discrepancy is also evident in the musical style: while Europe still somehow adheres to the twelve-tone technique, American composers do not shy away from accusations of prioritizing popularity and audibility. Evan Johnson writes: "An âÂÂAmerican Composer,â by contrast, operates â or can be successfully interpreted as operating â without the same sense of obligation to history [as his European counterpart]; his or her concern is the present, the tightly bounded experience of a particular work by a particular audience as created by a particular composer with particular interests."
In the 1990s, two major operas with queer representation broke the rule of the unspeakable:
Both operas achieved mainstream success. Once the barrier was broken, also a successful Broadway play â Angels in America by Tony Kushner â and a Hollywood blockbuster â Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee â could be converted into operas, the first one by Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös, the latter by American Charles Wuorinen. Terence Blanchard's queer-themed operas Champion (2013) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2019), based on the memoir of journalist Charles M. Blow, have both been major hits at traditional American opera houses like the Met.
Finally, the 2014 chamber opera As One by Laura Kaminsky shows the transition journey of a transgender woman.
The American opera scene has witnessed a surge in diversity during the 21st century, as various companies have embraced a broad spectrum of repertoire.
The U.S. has become a hub for opera education, with institutions such as the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music fostering the training of aspiring opera professionals. The Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program continues to nurture emerging talent. Opera's influence on American culture persists as it tackles modern-day concerns through inventive performances and partnerships. Composers such as Miguel del Aguila have written numerous operas, among them Time and Again Barela, commissioned by the city of Albuquerque for its tricentennial celebration.
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Until 2016, the Metropolitan Opera had only ever staged one opera by a woman: Ethel SmythâÂÂs Der Wald in 1903. This 113-year streak was finally broken by L'Amour de loin, an already successful opera by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho from 2000 â paving the way for the current surge of American women's works on that stage, such as Jeanine Tesori, Gabriela Lena Frank and Missy Mazzoli.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, around 2015, a brigade of female composers emerged in North America, making a name for themselves with new operatic works such as adaptations of successful films or explorations of social justice themes. Three colleagues had helped pave the way:
The newcomers of the new millennium are:
With The Handmaid's Tale, composed by Danish Poul Ruders, the feminist scenario of Margaret Atwood was brought to the opera stage in 2000. Also Toni Morrison contributed vehemently to the implementation of the female view in the operatic world â first in 2005 in Detroit with the her opera Margaret Garner, composed by Richard Danielpour, then in 2011 with the play Desdemona, created in cooperation with Peter Sellars and Rokia Traoré. The opera is loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner, who killed her two children to prevent them being returned to slavery.
The 2020s brought crisis to opera in the USA, it suffered massive shortfall. The companies reported dwindling ticket sales, rising costs and slumping philanthropy. According to a report about the Detroit Opera by The Free Press contributions fell $1,889,226 from fiscal year 2023 to 2024, primarily due to a $1,744,477 loss of government grants. Public donations fell by $145,749. Two prominent institutions were hit especially hard: the Met and the Washington National Opera.
The Met found itself in a desperate hunt for cash. It looked to a foreign government, to new strategies, even to outer space, in order to sustain the countryâÂÂs largest performing arts organization. Since 2024, the Met had to withdrew many millions from its endowment to address declining revenues, at least a third of its once sacrosanct fund. General manager Peter Gelb sought help from Saudi Arabia â offering five winter seasons in Riyadh â and even courted Elon Musk, promising the tech billionaire â only half jokingly â to produce an opera in outer space, i.e. Tosca on planet Mars. In February 2026, the Met even considered selling its Chagall murals at Lincoln Center, as long as the new owner accepts the condition that the art works remain in the opera house.
In January 2026 it was announced that Washington National Opera is leaving the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, its home since 1971. Artistic director Francesca Zambello, who has led the company for 14 seasons, shared her regrets and her hopes, that the WNO â³remains committed to its mission and artistic visionâ³. After the hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center by the Trump administration, there was no room any longer for productions such as Treemonisha or The Crucible. WNO returned to its origins, the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, a private institution. Both Treemonisha and The Crucible received enthusiastic acclaim from the public and the press, sold-out performances and standing ovations. The Washington Post called Zambellos staging of The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Robert Ward â³grippingâ³.