Portland Opera Tickets

The Portland Opera is an American opera company located in Portland, Oregon at the famous The Hampton Opera Center. It stages productions at the Newmark Theatre and the Keller Auditorium, within the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. It is also renowned for its subscriptions series of Broadway musicals that is held at the Keller Auditorium, for which Portland Opera tickets are a must buy. It is also one of the first opera companies to include surtitles in its productions and often plays host to many world premieres and US premieres.

The Portland Opera was formed in 1964 as the Portland Opera Association, by Henry Holt, a renowned conductor. The first piece performed by the opera company was Die Fledermaus by Strauss. Henry Holt became the general director of the company, a post that was then held by Herbert Weiskopf, who passed away soon after performing Lucia di Lammermoor in 1970. The next conductor to lead the opera was Stefan Minde, until 1984, followed by Robert Bailey, a former stage director and the first Director of Culture Programming at NPR, National Public Radio. He stayed with the opera until 2003.

The present general director of the opera is Christopher Mattaliano. He was formerly the artistic director and stage director of the Pine Mountain Music Festival and has been leading the opera since 2003. George Manahan is the company's present music director, as of 2012. During the 2012 to 2013 season, the company featured three marvelous productions; Falstaff, Tosca and Don Giovanni at the Keller Auditorium as well as, at the Newmark Theatre, a Rinaldo production.  

Many renowned artists, within classical music and without, have performed with the opera company including renowned conductors such as Donato Cabrera, Christopher Larkin, and David Giménez Carreras as well as famous singers such as Klara Barlow, Marcello Giordani, Gregory Reinhart, Jozsef Gregor and Charles Castronovo. Many famous productions have had their US and world premieres performed by this opera company, including the world premiere of Wuthering Heights by Bernard Herrmann, the world premiere of Lucy's Lapses by Christopher Drobny, the US premiere of Le Marchand de Venise by Reynaldo Hahn and the US premiere of A View from the Bridge by William Bolcom, amongst many more.

The mission of the Portland Opera is to inspire, uplift and challenge audiences, with high artistic quality productions, aimed at celebrating the beauty within opera. It often takes touring productions to many parts of Oregon and as far as Washington, engaging more than thirty five thousand young people each season. Its staged productions often attract more than forty two thousand patrons and Portland Opera tickets are often sold out. This opera company is one that states that it has the power to change the lives of people, forever, and it is because of its patrons and viewers that it exists.

It has existed for more than forty eight years in Portland, at the picturesque sites where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet. It is the city's first full fledged opera company and has established itself as a vital and vibrant part of the culture of Portland and Oregon state.

Its fame has spread all over the US, particular in the southwestern parts of the state f Washington. It is known for its efforts at making opera accessible to a larger audience through education and community outreach efforts. In 1984, it became the second opera company in the US to surtitles or supertitles, projected translations of operas into English, enhancing the theatrical experience of many of its patrons. It is the only company in the US that offers complete seasons of opera productions and Broadway productions, which result in much more sophisticated and artistic opera productions. It is known for innovative and groundbreaking stagings, such as the world premiere of Wuthering Heights.