Virginia Opera
Virginia Opera is the opera company of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It began in 1974 when volunteers in Norfolk started laying the groundwork, and in 1974–75 Thomas A. Lipton produced Puccini’s La bohème to test whether a professional company could succeed. Lipton, with conductor John Edward Niles as Music Director, built a team of staff, soloists, chorus and technicians, holding auditions in New York and Norfolk. After performances in January 1975, Virginia Opera launched as a professional company.
Today the company has an annual budget around $5 million, with more than 30 performances and about 50,000 attendees each season. In March 1994, the Virginia General Assembly named Virginia Opera the Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth in recognition of its contributions to Virginia and to the world of opera.
Virginia Opera presents four productions a year at four major Virginia venues: Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage in Richmond, Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax, and the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach. It is the only Virginia company to run a full season of operas across multiple main-stage venues and to reach more than 150,000 students and community members annually through its Education and Outreach Program.
The company was organized in 1974 by founding chair Edythe C. Harrison. David Farrar served as the founding stage director and led productions for 12 years, helping the company grow rapidly. Peter Mark joined as artistic director and led the company for more than 35 years, becoming artistic director emeritus in 2012. Russell P. Allen became president and CEO in 2011.
Virginia Opera’s early seasons were in Norfolk, with expansion to Richmond beginning in 1977, encouraged by Governor Mills Godwin. By 1983 a Richmond office had opened as the Richmond and Central Virginia Board was formed. In 1992 the company gave its first main-stage performance at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax.
Over the years the company has welcomed many famous singers and has staged a mix of traditional operas and works from different eras. Its repertoire includes standard operas such as La bohème, La traviata, Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor and The Barber of Seville, along with a wide array of American musicals like Man of La Mancha, West Side Story, Carousel, Oklahoma! and Sweeney Todd, as well as comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan such as The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore.
Virginia Opera is also known for its innovative programming of rarer or new works. It has premiered new pieces, including Ricky Ian Gordon’s Rappahannock County, a Civil War–themed song cycle co-commissioned with several partners, which premiered in 2011 in Norfolk. Earlier premieres include works by Thea Musgrave, such as Mary, Queen of Scots, A Christmas Carol, Harriet, The Woman Called Moses and Simon Bolivar. The company has staged baroque operas by Handel, bel canto titles like I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Norma, and major works by Wagner and Strauss, as well as 20th-century American pieces such as Porgy and Bess, Amahl and the Night Visitors, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Tender Land and Susannah.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:46 (CET).