Opera Lyra Ottawa

Opera Lyra Ottawa (OLO) was a non-profit professional opera company based in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in 1984 by Canadian soprano Diana Gilchrist after the demise of the National Arts Centre's annual summer opera productions. The company performs fully staged and concert version operas in their original language with French and English surtitles at the National Arts Centre as well as running outreach and young artist programs. John Peter "Jeep" Jefferies is its General Director.

As of 14 October 2015, Opera Lyra has ceased operations.

The company was founded in 1984 in response to the National Arts Center's decision to end further opera productions due to budget constraints. Opera Lyra's founder and first Artistic Director was Diana Gilchrist, a young Canadian soprano at the very start of her career. Initially the company performed operas in chamber versions with piano accompaniment in the tiny York Street Theatre in Ottawa. Its first production was Mozart's The Impresario (in which Gilchrist sang Madame Silberklang as well as directing and producing the show). This was followed by Telemann's Pimpinone and the premiere of John Burge's chamber opera The Master's House which had been commissioned by Opera Lyra.

Their second season saw increased private funding and the company's first fully staged opera, Così fan tutte, performed in the Alumni Theatre at Carleton University. In 1986, the company moved into the National Arts Center's 897 seat Theatre, with a production of The Barber of Seville. 1987 was Gilchrist's fourth year as Artistic Director and her final opera at the NAC was The Elixir of Love, conducted by Dwight Bennett. Jeannette Aster became Artistic Director in 1987 when Gilchrist moved to Europe for professional engagements singing Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta and other coloratura roles. The 1990 production of Madama Butterfly marked the first time the company performed an opera in its original language with French and English surtitles. Prior to that, operas had been performed in English (and occasionally French) translation. Until 1992, the company continued to put on one fully staged opera per season at the NAC Theatre, augmented with operas performed in concert version and operatically themed concerts and soirées in other venues. Starting with the 1992/1993 season, the company gave two fully staged operas per season, and in 1993 moved into the NAC's larger 2,100 seat Southam Hall with a production of La traviata. The company has used that venue ever since for its fully staged productions.

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