Talk:University of North Texas College of Music Opera

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Opera

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This is only a start article. As is, this entry needs to be improved in order to meet criteria for notability as a worthy stand-alone subject within a University of North Texas College of Music.

The UNT Opera Workshop is the first collegiate touring Opera Program west of the Mississippi and, at the time of its founding, was the only opera production company in existence in the Southwest. San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and others were founded after North Texas. The case for notability revolves this and several other axes.

Because the UNT Opera Workshop was the first in the Western U.S. (and it is still in operation), it is the oldest in the Western U.S. (65 years!).

The Opera Workshop was founded by two of the most famous figures in voice (at that time), Wilfred Bain and Mary McCormic. McCormic, somewhat forgotten, was an amazing character, worthy of a great book or a dissertation. Bain defined (at both North Texas and Indiana) how a major internationally renowned music school can flourish within a full liberal arts university.

The UNT Opera Workshop pioneered an approach to opera that began during an era that wiped out major opera companies (on the heels of the Great Depression). The new "low cost workshop" model gave life to new composers who otherwise would never have their operas produced. And the workshop model gave hope for opera itself, when many in the world dismissed opera as a bygone luxury of the rich. The new "low cost model" also gave access in regions of the world that otherwise had no hope of having having opera.

The UNT Opera Workshop, over the years, has produced a strong repertoire of major works. The workshop has toured with the cachet – and often near quality – of a reputable professional company.

The suggestion of merging UNT Opera with the University of North Texas College of Music would be a messy approach for deciphering one of the largest schools of music in the world — a school with a massive, storied history – some of which can be distilled for wikipedia in the form of tiny, albeit important vignettes.

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