Our History

The Creative Opera Company, Ltd. is a registered 501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit organization established in 1969 by Ellen Chandler (Frances Eberman) with the purpose of bringing opera to the community-at-large.

Ellen Chandler has a mission to share her grand passion for opera. She believes that everyone deserves to have an exposure to live opera regardless of their musical education, background, or ability to afford to attend such performances.

The Creative Opera Company's first performance in 1969 was a fund raiser for Lincoln Square Academy, a private NYC school for students in the performing arts. In 1972, the Creative Opera Company brought an updated English version of Cavelleria Rusticana into the adolescent division of Rikers Island. The opera was followed by a light rock 'n roll program which was arranged and played by the adult inmate musicians. It was the first (and perhaps the only) time opera had been brought into a criminal holding facility in the United States. Speight Jenkins of Opera News wrote a glowing review of the performance.

In 1973, the Creative Opera Company produced La Traviata, fully staged and costumed, at the Provincetown Theater in Greenwich Village, NYC, which also incorporated multimedia. Throughout the years the Creative Opera Company has produced numerous productions across the tri-state metropolitan area and in Florida in schools, universities, and senior residences. Ellen Chandler plans to continue to arrange such performances in the future.

Ellen Chandler is a member of JASA Club 76 and brings the Creative Opera Company to perform at JASA. On November 2, 2012 she began presenting programs at JASA and other senior citizen venues.

 

Click here to view and download the Creative Opera Company Brochure.