Notable singers to have performed at the festival include Rose Bampton, Muriel Costa-Greenspon, Margaret Harshaw, Brenda Lewis, Mildred Miller, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Norman Treigle, Richard Tucker, and Frances Yeend among others.
Initially the festival was housed at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium which sat 5,000 people, but in 1968 the festival moved to the newly built Theatre for the Performing Arts (which would later be renamed the Lila Cockrell Theatre).
[2] Conductor Max Reiter, who envisioned the festival, served as Artistic Director from 1945 until his death in 1950.
After the death of Alessandro, the festival floundered under the leadership of first François H. Huybrechts (1978–1980) and then Lawrence Leighton Smith (1980–1983).
Facing financial losses, the San Antonio Symphony ceased presenting the festival after 1983.