Washington National Opera (1919–1936)

For the present company of the same name, see Washington National Opera.

The Washington National Opera Association, founded in 1919 as Washington Community Opera, was a low-budget opera company, comprising professional principals supported by amateurs, active in Washington, DC until 1936.

It was in no way related to the company of the same name. By 1921 it had changed its name to the "Washington National Opera Association".

Its founder and moving force was a minor baritone who was born in Canada as Thomas Harold Meek but who adopted the name Edouard Albion upon settling in Washington and establishing a voice studio. Meek recruited soprano Enrica Clay Dillon to serve as the company's first Artistic Director, a role she held from 1919-1927.

The company offered a wide range of works during its first year, beginning with a January 13, 1919 performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and continuing, at intervals throughout the next several months, with Michael William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl; George Bizet's Carmen; Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci; and Charles Gounod's Faust, which marked the conductorial debut with the company of Arnold Volpe. The first production to feature significant professional singers was a Carmen in February 1920 with two European veterans, Belgian soprano Marguerita Sylva and Czech tenor Otakar Marák. Other important singers who would appear with the company in succeeding years included Mabel Garrison, Jeanne Gordon, Louise Homer, Edith Mason, Pasquale Amato, George Baklanov, Edward Johnson, Giuseppi Danise, and Titta Ruffo.

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