[1][2] Led by mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, the company's roster of artists included many prominent opera singers of the second half of the 20th century in the early part of their careers.
[2] While Metropolitan Opera director Rudolf Bing publicly expressed support for the project, privately he derided the idea and resented the board's actions in creating the company.
[2] In his 1972 autobiography, 5000 Nights at the Opera, Bing haughtily devalued the National Company as "an expression of the typical American weakness for doing something -- anything -- for education and the young.
Among the young singers contracted with the company, many in their first professional engagements, included sopranos Clarice Carson, Maralin Niska, Mary Beth Peil, Francesca Roberto, and Marilyn Zschau; mezzo-sopranos Joy Davidson, Sylvia Friederich, Dorothy Krebill, and Huguette Tourangeau; tenors Enrico Di Giuseppe, Chris Lachona, Nicholas di Virgilio, and Harry Theyard; baritones Ron Bottcher, John Fiorito, Thomas Jamerson, Julian Patrick, and Vern Shinall; bass-baritones Andrij Dobriansky, Ronald Hedlund, and Arnold Voketaitis; and bass Paul Plishka.
The company made its debut on September 29, 1965 at the Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis with Maralin Niska as Floyd's Susannah.