The Tri-Cities Opera Company (commonly known as "TCO"), founded in 1949 by Peyton Hibbitt and Carmen Savoca in

Binghamton, NY Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conf ...

, annually stages four full-scale operas per season, which typically runs from October until May each year. Tri-Cities Opera is notable for its artist training program, and maintains a costume and set rental business to other opera companies for many commonly performed operas.

General information

Tri-Cities opera was founded in 1949 to serve the community of Greater Binghamton in upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. TCO is organized and focused as a training company for younger artists and is partnered in the community with

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

's music department. For productions, TCO uses these resident artists and rarely engages outside performers.

Resident artist training program

Since inception, TCO has had a focus on training young opera singers and has created a Resident Artist program, training young opera singers from around the world. Alumnus of the program have gone on to perform at world-renowned opera companies include

The Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred to colloquially as the Met, the company i ...

and The

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

. Artists who have studied and performed at TCO include the tenor

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

during the 1965–1966 seasons, and many other well-known opera performers. Resident artists receive instruction at TCO's facilities, main performance space at the Broome County Forum theater and private studios of staff. Skills taught to resident artists include audition skills, acting, stage craft, movement, diction, vocal pedagogy, vocal coaching, and role interpretation.

Costume and set productions

TCO has production sets and costumes for many of the most commonly performed operas. TCO rents these items to numerous other opera companies for their productions. TCO has facility space to produce, store and maintain these items.

Performance venues

TCO maintains facilities on Clinton Street in

, where it has facilities space for costume design, set production and storage, training and practice facilities for artists, and a small performance theater for various smaller, intimate productions or events. For full-scale performances, TCO utilizes the Broome County Forum theater, a 1500-seat restored vaudeville facility located in downtown

External links

Tri-Cities Opera Homepage

Broome County Arts Council Members

References

{{authority control New York (state) opera companies Musical groups established in 1949 1949 establishments in New York (state) Organizations based in Binghamton, New York