NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre (sometimes mistakenly spelled NBC Opera Theater and sometimes referred to as the NBC Opera Company) was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of televising both established and new operas for television in English. Additionally, the company also gave live theatrical presentations of operas, sponsoring several touring productions in the United States and mounting works on Broadway.

Conductor Peter Herman Adler served as the NBCOT's music and artistic director, and Samuel Chotzinoff as the company's producer. Conductor Herbert Grossman was an associate conductor with the company when it was founded, but was later promoted to conductor in 1956. From that point on Adler and Grossman shared the conducting load while Adler remained Music Director. NBC disbanded the NBC Opera Theatre in 1964 and liquidated its assets. The company performed a total of 43 operas for NBC, the majority of which were broadcast on the program NBC Television Opera Theatre. The organization's work garnered 3 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. All of the performances were broadcast live from an NBC studio and were not pre-recorded or edited before airing, although kinescopes and later videotapes were made of live broadcasts for delayed broadcast purposes in some areas.

During its 14-year history, the NBC Opera Theatre commissioned several composers to write operas specifically for television. The most famous and most successful of these works was the very first new opera staged by the company, Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors", which premiered live on December 24, 1951 as the first installment of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" program. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in America. Other operas commissioned by the company included Bohuslav Martinů's "The Marriage" (1953), Lukas Foss' "Griffelkin" (1955), Norman Dello Joio's "The Trial at Rouen" (1956), Leonard Kastle's "The Swing", Stanley Hollingsworth's "La Grande Bretèche" (1957), Menotti's "Maria Golovin" (1958), Philip Bezanson's "Golden Child" (1960), Kastle's "Deseret" (1961) and Menotti's "Labyrinth" (1963).

Most NBC Opera telecasts were sponsored by Texaco, who was also the longtime sponsor of radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. Nearly all NBCOT presentations after the middle 1950s were broadcast in color.
Q1344
opera
Concept
Q13974
National Broadcasting Company
ORG
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opera
Concept
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Broadway
LOC
Q324705
Peter Herman Adler
PER
None
Samuel Chotzinoff
UNK
Q5734260
Herbert Grossman
PER
Q1044427
Primetime Emmy Award
PER
Q270662
Gian Carlo Menotti
PER
Q452523
Amahl and the Night Visitors
MEDIA
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Hallmark Hall of Fame
MEDIA
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Bohuslav Martinů
PER
Q7750400
The Marriage
MEDIA
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Lukas Foss
PER
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Griffelkin
MEDIA
Q724145
Norman Dello Joio
PER
Q7770294
The Trial at Rouen
MEDIA
Q4216885
Leonard Kastle
PER
None
The Swing
UNK
Q7599673
Stanley Hollingsworth
PER
Q3209463
La Grande Bretèche
MEDIA
Q6761228
Maria Golovin
MEDIA
Q7183228
Philip Bezanson
PER
None
Golden Child
UNK
None
Deseret
UNK
Q6467720
Labyrinth
MEDIA
Q775060
Texaco
ORG
Q10583424
Metropolitan Opera
LOC
Q16955402
NBC Opera Theatre
ORG
Q16955402
NBC Opera Theatre
ORG
Q16955402
NBC Opera Theatre
ORG
1949-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1949
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1964
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1956
DATE
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1964
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1951-12-24T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
December 24, 1951
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1950
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notable work
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