Within the next five months, Lipton hired the conductor John Edward Niles as Music Director and together they assembled a production staff, soloists, chorus and technicians.
Organized in 1974 by founding chair Edythe C. Harrison, Virginia Opera was launched with two productions in the Norfolk Center Theater.
Russell P. Allen, appointed President and CEO in 2011, currently leads the company, returning to Virginia Opera after previously serving six years as General Manager from 1994-2000.
These have included Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Renée Fleming, Diana Soviero, Lawrence Brownlee, Barbara Dever, Jeannine Altmeyer, Ashley Putnam, Cristina Nassif, Frederick Burchinal, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Randy Locke, Jake Gardner, Sujung Kim, Frank Porretta, Grant Youngblood, Fabiana Bravo, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Nmon Ford, Jeniece Goldbourne, Randall Scarlata, and Thomas Rolf Truhitte.
Added to these have been productions of American musicals such as Man of La Mancha (1987), West Side Story (1994), Carousel (1996) Oklahoma!
The company has produced notable world and American premieres of new works, including most recently American composer Ricky Ian Gordon's Rappahannock County, a Civil War song cycle co-commissioned by Virginia Opera, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Modlin Center of the University of Richmond, and the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to the Musgrave premieres, other 20th century American works have included Porgy and Bess several times beginning in 1980; Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors in December 1982 and his The Medium in early 1992; Andre Previn's 1998 A Streetcar Named Desire was seen in February/March 2013; Aaron Copland's The Tender Land appeared in early 1998; and Carlyle Floyd's Susannah was staged in November 2006.