Chelsea Opera is an opera company located in New York City, founded in April 2004 by Leonarda Priore and Lynne Hayden-Findlay, both singers, who sought to create more performance opportunities with chamber orchestra within the tri-state areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Initially the company's musical direction was provided by conductor Carmine Aufiero.
The company's range of performances includes many from the "standard repertoire", but now modern works such as the November 2010 production of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, based on the oral biography of Tom Philpott, which garnered an outstanding review from Allan Kozinn in The New York Times[1] and Opera News[2] as well as This is the rill speaking and vocal chamber piece, Bermudas. Both celebrated the 85th birthday of American composer Lee Hoiby. More recently, in November 2012, the company presented the world premiere of The Mark of Cain by Matthew Harris and Terry Quinn. The Manhattan premiere of A Distant Love: Songs of John and Abigail Adams by Gary Fagin and Terry Quinn followed in June 2013. The New York premiere of Richard Wargo's one-act opera, Ballymore: Part One - Winners was paired with Seymour Barab's hilarious farce, La Pizza con Funghi, and received critical acclaim from Opera News: the operas "had great appeal both to old opera hands and to first-time operagoers."[citation needed]
Each season now includes multiple offerings within its concert series, Chelsea Opera presents…, a series of thematic concerts featuring the company’s principal singers and guest artists, whose number now exceeds 400 who have performed principal roles, sung in the ensemble, been involved in design/production, and played in the Chelsea Opera Chamber Orchestra (“COCO”).