(NOTE: Lyric Opera San Diego filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2012. The company’s future is, as of this writing, uncertain.)

Lyric’s two previous names give an idea of the company’s fare. It was founded in 1979 as the San Diego Gilbert and Sullivan Company, to produce – big surprise – Savoyard operettas. Just over a decade later it became San Diego Comic Opera to reflect the broadening of …more…

With the city’s appetite for opera whetted by a WPA project during the 1930s, San Diego Opera was established in 1950 and thereby became Southern California’s oldest opera company. For 15 years its primary function was presenting San Francisco Opera productions. The opening of the San Diego Civic Center early in 1965 allowed the company to begin producing its own works. Within a decade it had expanded from a single …more…