Since 1977, Eugene Opera has presented professional opera in western Oregon, staging many of the world’s best-known operas and some of the best new operatic works.

In 1976, Artistic Director Philip Bayles and over 100 volunteer musicians, singers, stagehands and opera fans combined their efforts to bring opera to Eugene, Oregon. The first production Carmen played to a “full house” of 600 attendees in a local high school auditorium. A local newspaper reporter remarked, “It’s a first effort to be proud of, for it has proven that Eugene is loaded with high-quality musicians and opera-hungry concertgoers.” In 1982, Eugene Opera became a resident company in the newly opened Hult Center for the Performing Arts.

Eugene Opera has been profiled nationally on National Public Radio and in Opera News, and enjoyed a cameo appearance by humorist Dave Barry in his only operatic role. In recent years it has also received favorable notice for its productions of modern operas.

Eugene Opera helped launch the careers of such current opera stars as Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Stephen Mark Brown, Kelley Nassief, Gregory Turay, Lucas Meacham, and Joelle Harvey. Today’s productions regularly feature stars from great opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera. They also continue to feature emerging stars, particularly those from the Pacific Northwest.

Eugene Opera has regularly conducted educational outreach programs that bring opera to students and classrooms throughout the surrounding Lane County area. Currently, it introduces high school students to opera through the Eugene Opera Academy.

In 2015-16, Eugene Opera began to program chamber operas, which proved both popular and artistically successful, receiving high praise both in local reviews and in Opera News.

More recently, Eugene Opera’s recent seasons featured sold-out performances of María de Buenos Aires, the Company’s first Spanish language opera, as well as As One, its' first opera composed by a female composer, Laura Kaminsky, with libretto by Kimberly Reed and Mark Campbell.

Eugene Opera offered a number of online offerings during the pandemic, and was thrilled to return with a full season in 2021-2022, featuring the operas Lucy and The Magic Flute.

1977 — Carmen

1977-78 — The Maid as Mistress, HMS Pinafore, Don Giovanni

1978-79 — The Pirates of Penzance, The Barber of Seville

1979-80 — Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi, The Impresario

1980-81 — The Mikado, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Pagliacci/Pulcinella

1981-82 — Patience, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly

1982-83 — La bohème, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, Yeoman of the Guard

1983-84 — Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, La Traviata

1984-85 — Faust, Cinderella, Tosca, The Pirates of Penzance

1985-86 — Madama Butterfly, Hansel and Gretel, Carmen

1986-87 — The Barber of Seville, The Merry Widow, The Medium, The Mikado

1987-88 — Tosca, The Daughter of the Regiment, Tartuffe, The Marriage of Figaro

1988-89 — La Bohème, The Elixir of Love, Così fan tutte

1989-90 — Cinderella, Gianni Schicchi, Pagliacci

1990-91 — The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly

1991-92 — Candide, Romeo and Juliette

1992-93 — The Impresario, The Telephone, The Face on the Barroom Floor

1993-94 — Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca, HMS Pinafore

1994-95 — Gianni Schicchi, La Traviata, The Pirates of Penzance

1995-96 — Carmen, La Bohème, Trial by Jury

1996-97 — The Magic Flute, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Mikado

1997-98 — Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Porgy and Bess

1998-99 — Madama Butterfly, Opera Under the Stars, The Barber of Seville

1999-00 — Aida, Le nozze di Figaro, Turandot

2000-01 — La Cenerentola, Così fan tutte, The Mikado

2001-02 — Tosca, La Traviata, Susannah

2002-03 — Pagliacci, La Bohème

2003-04 — Carmen, HMS Pinafore

2004-05 — Die Fledermaus, Belle Voci Competition, Rigoletto

2005-06 — Belle Voci Competition, The Barber of Seville, Hansel and Gretel

2006-07 — The Pirates of Penzance

2007-08 — The Magic Flute, Madama Butterfly, The Art of the American Diva

2008-09 — Orpheus in the Underworld, Il Trovatore, Don Giovanni

2009-10 — Le nozze di Figaro, Faust

2010-11 — La bohème, The Mikado

2011-12 — Carmen, Nixon in China

2012-13 — The Pirates of Penzance, Dead Man Walking

2013-14 — La Traviata, The Girl of the Golden West

2014-15 — The Elixir of Love, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2015-16 — The Turn of the Screw, Lucia di Lammermoor, Eugene Onegin, Little Women

2016-17 — Much Ado About Nothing (Béatrice et Bénédict); Opera Trio: Aida (Act 1), Dialogues of the Carmelites (Act 3), Die Fledermaus (Act 2)

2017-18 — The Barber of Seville, María de Buenos Aires

2018-19 — HMS Pinafore, As One

2019-20 — the little match girl passion, New Year's Celebration, Tosca (cancelled due to COVID-19)

2020-21 — Diva Cage Match (virtual), New Year's Eve Special (virtual)

2021-22 — Madama Butterfly in the Garden, Lucy, The Magic Flute

2022-23 — La bohème, Acis and Galatea

Officers:

Ashley Hastings, President

EO Board President Ashley Hastings is in the first term of his second round of board service with Eugene Opera. He has been an opera fan for many years, attending his first opera, Parsifal, in 1959, and believes that opera is the pinnacle of the performing arts and an essential component of Eugene’s identity. Despite having seen many operas by international companies, one of his favorite opera moments comes from Eugene Opera’s 2015 performance of Lucia di Lammermoor.

Ashley is a Professor Emeritus at Shenandoah University and, during his career, he created one of the first online master’s programs for teaching English as a second language. He holds a PhD in Linguistics. In addition to his love of opera, Ashley enjoys baseball and is a self-described “incurable Washington Nationals fan.” 

Victor Congleton, Vice President

EO Board Vice President Victor Congleton is in his fifth year on the Eugene Opera board. While he remembers Bizet’s Carmen as his first opera, Vic was really blown away by Verdi’s Rigoletto, as it demonstrated “the emotional power of narrative, multiple simultaneous emotional experiences, vocal music, orchestral music and staging combined.” He believes Eugene deserves to experience art, and opera, like that on a regular basis.

Vic retired from a long career in public child welfare, having served in a variety of roles throughout the Willamette Valley. Beyond opera, Vic also enjoys baseball, reading, and visual art. 

Ruth Obadal, Treasurer

EO Board Treasurer Ruth Obadal is in her fifth year of board service with EO. Ruth’s first opera was Die Fledermaus, which she attended while studying piano and music theory at the University of Kansas. “Opera has the power to evoke the deepest emotions more than any other art form. The music is what drives it and makes it magical for me,” Ruth said.

Ruth retired from a 34-year career in fire and emergency services, including a ten-year role as the Planning Chief for Eugene Fire & EMS, and still works to advance fire department accreditation throughout North America. In addition to her service to Eugene Opera, Ruth volunteers with the Cat Rescue and Adoption Network and has been an active member of the Oregon Track Club since 1996. 

Ashly Lilly, Secretary

EO Board Secretary Ashly Lilly is in her second year of board service with EO. She is passionate about how the arts, in all their many forms, benefit communities. Her first opera was Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and she enjoys how opera can be representative of what we love, what we experience, and what connects us.

Ashly is an aerial performer and coach, the Executive Director of Revelers Contemporary Circus, and the Communications Coordinator for the University of Oregon’s Division of Graduate Studies. She holds an MNM and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management from UO and a BJ in Strategic Communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Directors:

Rosaria Haugland

Mary Meacham

Ann Musgrove

Joel Sati

EO Board Member Joel Sati is in his first year of board service with EO. He is passionate about the arts and appreciates how “opera’s unique blend of music, drama, visual arts, and storytelling creates an immersive and emotionally powerful experience.” His first opera was Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Sati recognizes how individual artistic choices can elevate and breathe new life into the classics. He believes that opera is critical to our community’s cultural vibrancy and artistic diversity, as “opera entertains, educates, and inspires audiences while preserving a timeless art form.”

Sati is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Oregon School of Law and teaches Criminal Law and Crimmigration (the intersection of criminal law and immigration). He holds a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from UC Berkeley and a JD from Yale. In his free time, Sati enjoys powerlifting, standup comedy, and being something of a movie afficionado.

Chorus Representative:

Chris Lamb

EUGENE OPERA’S COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Eugene Opera is committed to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in our organization and our art form.

Diversity is the breadth of representation within the opera field. It can mean diverse cultures and ethnicities, gender identities, ages, geographies, or works presented.

Inclusion is the invitation and the welcome. Inclusion doesn’t just mean representation in numbers, but also whose voices are heard. It urges us to think about how we create a space where everyone feels comfortable and safe.

Cultural Equity embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people, regardless of race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion, have opportunities to learn, engage, support, create, perform, and fully experience the art of opera.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & AFFIRMATIONS

• We understand that the cultural origins of opera have created barriers in accessing an art form that should belong to everyone.
• In addition, there are entrenched systems of power in the United States that grant privilege and access unequally such that inequity and injustice result, and that must be continuously addressed and changed.
• We believe cultural equity is critical to the long-term viability of the arts sector.
• We must hold ourselves accountable to acknowledge and challenge our inequities in order to make change happen.

MODELING THROUGH ACTION

To provide authentic leadership for cultural equity, we strive to…

• Pursue cultural awareness throughout our organization by listening and learning and through the adoption of formal, transparent policies.
• Identify and dismantle any inequities within our policies, programs, and services, and be accountable for making such changes happen.
• Commit time and resources to expand diverse leadership within our board and staff.
• Publicly recognize that the land on which we live, work, and perform is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people.

CURRENT GOALS

To pursue needed change related to equity, we intend to…

• Identify our own biases as they relate to opera, privilege and cultural elitism.
• Identify vulnerable decision-making points including casting, board recruitment, and hiring, in which questions of equity should be at the forefront.
• Improve the cultural leadership pipeline by advancing education programs that relate to careers in the arts and technical fields.
• Actively engage with organizations that serve communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and People with Disabilities in Eugene-Springfield.
• Work with local tribal organizations to develop a meaningful and respectful land acknowledgment position.
• Invite and include Lane County residents of all socioeconomic circumstances, and those in rural communities outside the Eugene-Springfield metro area.