NEA era NORS 2008 INAUGURAL National Endowment for the Arts (pa/ufes 2008 Honorees of the Inaugural NEA Opera Honors NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS Leettft/tte .Price SOPRANO Gar/is/e ffletfd COMPOSER/LIBRETTIST iffyf/iard Qaddes GENERAL DIRECTOR c yames Levitt e MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR October 31, 2008 Sidney Harman Hall Harman Center for the Arts Washington, D.C. A great nation This inaugural event is made possible in part deserves great art. through the generosity of joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. NEA era IONORS vemeu The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is dedicated to bringing the best of the arts and arts education to all Americans. Established by Congress in 1965, it is an independent agency of the federal government. The NEA is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art both new and estab- lished to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities and military bases. Since its inception, it has awarded more than 128,000 grants totaling more than $4 billion. NEA-supported projects range across all artistic disciplines and include museum exhibitions, internet initiatives, national tours, international exchanges, theater festivals and historic preservation. The NEA presents annual lifetime honors in three categories: NEA National Heritage Fellowships to master folk and traditional artists; NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships to jazz musicians and advocates; and now the NEA Opera Honors. The NEA Opera Honors, celebrating lifetime achievement and individual excellence, is the first individual honorific award established by the National Endowment for the Arts in more than a quarter century. OPERA America is a partner with the NEA in producing this program, with the Washington National Opera serving as this year's host com- pany. The first NEA Opera Honors recipients are soprano Leontyne Price, composer Carlisle Floyd, advocate Richard Gaddes and maestro James Levine. Miss Price is known for her elegant musicianship, her generosity to young singers and her remarkable recording legacy. Mr. Floyd has had a long and distinguished career; his many memorable operas include Susanna and Of Mice and Men. Mr. Gaddes, the recently retired general director of the Santa Fe Opera and the co-founder of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, is known for challenging, adventurous program- ming. Mr. Levine has led the Metropoli- tan Opera premieres of works by composers from Mozart to Weill and the world premieres of American operas by John Corigliano and John Harbison. The NEA Opera Honors program is the latest in a long line of NEA programs designed to foster the growth of the art form throughout the nation. Since 1967, the NEA has made more than 4,300 grants to opera companies, artists and organizations, totaling almost $165 million. Through its New American Works program, which ran from 1980 to 1995, the NEA awarded more than 600 grants to assist in the creation of new compositions, including John Adams's Nixon in China, Anthony Davis's Amistad and William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge. The NEA continues to support new work through its grant programs. The agency also supports other operatic fields, including young artists' programs in cities such as Houston, San Francisco and Chicago. Television and radio audiences also benefit from NEA funding of a variety of programs, including The Metropolitan Opera Presents (formerly known as Live from the Met), Great Performances and NPR's World of Opera. The NEA also supports and develops projects and leadership initiatives with significant national reach. It launched OPERA America's Opera Fund, which through 50 grants in its first three years awarded almost $1 million in support of new work. In 2005 - 2006, men and women in uniform experienced opera through the NEA's Great American Voices, in which 24 professional opera companies performed at 39 military bases across the country. www.arts.gov %Ui ccme From Dana Gioia, Chairman National Endowment for the Arts "It is with both official pride and personal pleasure that I welcome the NEA Opera Honors. These special lifetime awards are the first new class of official federal arts honors in more than 25 years. Their arrival not only celebrates the field of opera; it also recognizes the essential importance of all the arts. Opera has truly come of age in America. Over the past century it has developed herefrom a small art form associated mostly with European immi- grants into a distinctively American enterprise. Perhaps it has been most distinctive in its remarkable ability — like other American musical traditions such as jazz, Broadway and bluegrass — to incorporate the best of diverse traditions, both foreign and native, to create a recognizably American art. During this period American opera has blossomed in ways that would have astounded its earliest champions. Opera companies have emerged and flourished across the nation. Our singers, muscians, composers, directors, conductors and designers are second to none in the world. Our opera companies mount productions of great innovation, sophistication and artistic excellence. Our audiences continue to grow. Meanwhile our nation, which does so much /(> support the arts in other ways, has always been shy to offer national honors for artists. One only needs to compare our cash currency to that of other nations to see the cultural differences. ( her the past centuries the I '.S. has honored presidents and cabinet officials on its currency, Italy honors Caravaggio, Bernini and Puccini. England portrays the queen on one side of its pound notes, but turn one over and you find portraits of Dickens, Shakespeare and Elgar. How joyful then that the time has come for the U.S. government to honor great living opera artists with the high C of official praise. With the support of Congress and the White House, the NEA was authorized to establish the nation's highest honor in opera — affirming the value of this great civic art form. The inaugural class of recipients — Leontyne Price, Carlisle Floyd, Richard Gaddes and James Levine — offers vivid portraits of the exceptional achievements of American opera. I look forward to seeing who in subsequent years is lauded for his or her accomplishments, who will serve as eloquent evidence that a great nation does indeed deserve great art" ree, "The inauguration of the NEA Opera Honors documents the arrival of opera as an essential part of the American cultural landscape. Once considered old, foreign and irrelevant, opera is a multi-media art form that thrives in our new multi-media world. American artists illuminate works from across opera's 400 year literature while hundreds of new American operas portray American stories with stirring music and theatricality. Our view of opera is skewed by the long and illustrious history of the Metro- politan Opera — the country's oldest opera company, celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. In most communities, opera is relatively new. More than two-thirds of the opera companies in existence today were established after I960 — half of them after 1970. The rapid growth of opera in the United States in the '60s and '70s coincides with the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts itself. This growth continues today as new opera companies are being launched in cities that have never been enriched by the availabil- ity of live performances. The increase in the number and variety of American opera companies has provided tremendous opportunity for American artists. * ' . ' a generation ago, aspiring American singers, conductors and From OPERA America's President and CEO Marc A. Scorca stage directors had to travel to Europe to gain experience before being considered for major productions in this country. Today, thanks to outstanding university opera programs, conservatories and young artist training programs at companies of all sizes — pioneered by the Apprentice Program of the Santa Fe Opera in the 1950s — American artists are among the most well- trained and versatile in the world, earning acclaim in all the major opera houses. Productions of American operas were rare until recently. While the United States has a rich history of opera composition, mainstage productions of operas by American composers were almost unheard of in the decades following World War II. Opera was at risk of becoming a museum art form as the 20th century progressed and companies remained exclusively devoted to the works of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Responding to this risk, companies like the Santa Fe Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, supported by funding from both the National Endow- ment for the Arts and OPERA America, made a commitment to commission and produce new American works. Today, opera companies premiere between 10 and 20 new operas every season along with new productions of existing American works from the growing American canon. Opera in America has thrived in recent years. The creation of the NEA Opera Honors confirms opera's entry into the 21st century as a vital contributor to our country's cultural expression." OPERA America — the nonprofit service organization for opera — under the leadership of president and CEO Marc A. Scorca, serves the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera. OPERA America's membership includes nearly 200 professional opera company members; 2,000 affiliate, individual and business members; and more than 18,500 online subscribers. It is the only organiza- tion serving all constituents of the opera field, embracing a broad range of opera companies, creative and performing artists, and audience members. OPERA America also provides entry points to opera to a national audience through a variety of programs, ranging from the K-12 Music! Words! Opera! curriculum to an online learning series for adults. Artistic services help opera compa- nies and artists to improve the quality of productions and increase the creation and presentation of North American work. The Opera Fund, launched with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, has awarded more than $10 million in grants in support of the creation and production of new operas and related audience development activities. OPERA America's 17-person staff is based in New York, with a government affairs director positioned in Washington, D.C. OPERA America helped to establish Opera. ca (Toronto) and Opera Europa (Brussels) and works closely with both organizations to sustain and serve an international member network. www.operaamerica.org "It is a great pleasure and privilege for all of us at Washington National Opera to be part of the first NEA Opera Honors awards program. Celebrating the great individuals in any field is always important, but I am especially happy to know that at long last the people who have committed themselves to opera — be they singers, conductors, composers or administrators — are receiving this wonderful recognition from the United States government. It seems fitting, also, that the first NEA Opera Honors recipients are being saluted here in the nation's capital, and Washington National Opera is proud to be the host for what is, in essence, an American operatic inauguration. Washington National Opera is dedicated to presenting not only the masterpieces of the past but also the great works of our own time, including those by one of the evenings honorees, Carlisle Floyd. The NEA Opera Honors singles out legends of our day — people who not only have inspired others throughout their careers but who are also models for future essaye From Washington National Opera's General Director, Placido Domingo generations. I am especially pleased that singers from the Domingo -Cafritz Young Artist Program will perform at this first NEA Opera Honors gala: this allows us to pay tribute to living legends of American opera while we look toward the future through a new generation. On a personal note, I feel lucky to have been associated with all four of tonight's recipients. Leontyne Price is one of the greatest sopranos of this or any other time, and I am happy and honored to be able to call her a colleague. I will never forget the many opportunities I had to sing with her — to have that magnificent voice right next to my ear. Carlisle Floyd has written some of the most beloved operas of the twentieth century, and Washington National Opera has staged two of them: Susannah and Of Mice and Men. As an opera administrator, I enormously admire Richard Caddes, who has run two very different opera companies, in Saint Louis and Santa Fe, and has maintained their individuality. Finally, Maestro James Levine: he is my friend, my colleague and my mentor — a man who plavs such an important role in opera in America and has guided and will continue to guide so many singers with one, intelligence and passion. These four people have helped to make opera a special part of our lives, and we will continue to look up to them as we strive toward a glorious future." Washington National Opera is recognized as one of the world's premier opera companies. Under the leadership of general director Placido Domingo, WNO has continued to move confidently forward since the company's founding in 1956. More than five decades and countless artistic leaps later, the WNO has achieved the stature of a world class company, plays to capacity audiences at the Kennedy Center, and has recently appointed Mark Weinstein as executive director. WNO is committed to sustaining new American opera and has presented numerous world, American and com- pany premieres. Through the Center for Education and Training, which houses the cel- ebrated Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, the award-winning Education and Community Programs, and the Placido Domingo Intern and Apprentice Program, and through its Access to Opera initiatives, WNO is dedicated to broadening the publics awareness and understanding o( opera. www.dc-opera.org Lecwfutte iPrice "This award is visible evidence to the world of the esteem in which we as a nation hold opera. It was a long journey from my hometown of Laurel Mississippi, to the capital of the greatest country in the world. I thank everyone who was involved in my selection and I share this recognition with everyone who helped me along the way. They have my sincerest thanks and appreciation. I am still almost speechless." NEA vera CONORS There are very few singers with voices that are as instantly recognizable, and revered, as the rich, creamy lyric soprano of Leontyne Price. She continues to be a powerful advocate not only for the art she loves, but for human rights. Born in Laurel, Missis- sippi in 1927, Price played the piano early on and soon began to sing at church and school. When she was 9 years old, she heard Marian Anderson in concert; that, Price has said, "was what you might call the original kickoff" for her pursuit of what became an astonishing vocal career. Although her 1961 debut as Leonora in Verdi's II Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera instantly made her a legend — and landed her on the cover of Time magazine — she was already well known to opera audiences in cities such as San Francisco and Vienna (where, at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan, she made her debut as Aida in 1959). Price has made a long career in opera, concert and recital. Though she is best known as a Verdi and Puccini singer, she has always embraced the work of American composers, particularly Samuel Barber. She gave the premiere of his Hermit Songs at New York City's Town Hall in 1954, with the composer at the piano, and Barber went on to write many pieces for her. In 1997, Price introduced children to one of opera's greatest heroines in her book Aida, Her scores of awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom ( 1964 ), the Kennedy Center Honors ( 1980), the National Medal of the Arts ( 1985), the National Association of Black Broadcasters Award (2002), the French Order of Arts and Letters, the Italian Order of Merit, 19 Grammys and three Emmys. Leon fane zPtice SELECTED CDs currently in circulation Puccini: Tosca Decca with Di Stetano; conducted bv Karaian Verdi: Aida RCA with Bumbry, Domingo, Milnes; conducted bv Leinsdort Puccini: Sladama Butxc^'.: RCA with Elias, Tucker; conducted by Leinsdort Verdi: Requiem Decca with Elias, Bioerling, Tozzi; conducted bv Reiner bamtyne Price Sings Barber RCA Hermit So?igs with Barber at the piano. Summer of 1 915, among others; conducted by Schippers Right as the Rain RCA with Previn as conductor and pianist; popular classic songs bv Arlen, Rodsers, Previn, amons others «4 Lecnfi/ne