American city in Texas. It is a centre of mercantile industry, high technology, electronics and aerospace manufacturing and finance, and one of the most important cultural centres in the south-west USA. The city's formal musical life began with Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, which opened the first Dallas Opera House on 15 October 1883; the house served itinerant musicians, acting troupes and touring opera companies for some years. In 1913 a committee appointed by the chamber of commerce invited the Chicago Grand Opera Company to visit the city and for about 20 years Texans heard such singers as Garden, Tetrazzini, Dalmorès and Chaliapin. During the 1930s Fortune Gallo took his San Carlo Opera Company to Dallas. In 1939, under the auspices of the Dallas Grand Opera Association, the Metropolitan Opera included Dallas in its annual tour and, except for 1941 to 1943 and 1961, returned every year until 1984, the year before domestic touring was discontinued.
The Dallas SO was founded in 1900 as the Dallas Symphony Club under the direction of Hans Kreissig, an itinerant German-born pianist and conductor; an ensemble of about 35 musicians, it continued under various conductors (Walter Fried, 1905–11 and 1918–24; Carl Venth, 1911–14; Paul Van Katwijk, 1925–38; Jacques Singer, 1938–42) until it was reorganized as a full-size orchestra under Antal Dorati in 1945. Four years later Walter Hendl became both the orchestra's first American conductor and, at 32, the youngest conductor to lead a major American orchestra. He was followed in 1958 by Paul Kletzki, who conducted until 1961, the year in which Georg Solti was appointed senior conductor. Solti left after one season because of disagreements with the symphony board, and was replaced in 1962 by the former assistant conductor Donald Johanos, who remained until 1970. Anshel Brusilow then tried unsuccessfully to combine the orchestra's popular and serious appeal, and was replaced in 1973–4 by Max Rudolf as artistic adviser. $1 million in debt, the orchestra suspended activities in March 1974, but was able to resume concerts in February 1975 under its guest conductor Louis Lane. Eduardo Mata was appointed music director in 1977 and held that position until 1994. Mata oversaw the rebuilding of the orchestra, enlarging it, strengthening its membership, actively pursuing a recording programme and exploring Hispanic repertory in its concerts. He was succeeded by Andrew Litton in 1994.
The Dallas SO season comprises 21 subscription programmes given three or four times each, plus a pops series and a summer festival of both orchestral and chamber performances. After 1919, performances took place in City Hall Auditorium until Fair Park Music Hall (cap. 4126) was built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial and Pan American Exposition. Between 1962 and 1972 concerts were held in McFarlin Memorial Auditorium (cap. 2404) at Southern Methodist University. In 1972 the orchestra returned to Fair Park Music Hall (now renovated, cap. 3420), a multi-purpose facility also used for performances by the Dallas Opera. The 180-voice Grand Chorus (founded 1942) from nearby North Texas State University frequently appeared with the Dallas SO until the formation of the Dallas SO Chorus (founded 1977). By then it was apparent that Fair Park Music Hall was an inadequate and acoustically inferior venue for the orchestra. The Dallas SO board determined that the orchestra's long-range success depended upon a permanent home with superior acoustics; and they opted for reduced capacity and design features emulating the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1982 Dallas voters approved a bond issue for an unusual public/private partnership to guarantee funding for the new concert hall. The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by architect I.M. Pei and acoustician Russell Johnson, with a capacity of 2062, opened in 1989 to wide critical acclaim and is considered one of the finest concert halls in North America (see illustration). The new facility allowed the orchestra to expand to a full-year season and resulted in the establishment of an independent orchestra for the Dallas Opera. The installation of the Lay Family Concert Organ in 1992 by the C.B. Fisk company added to the hall's prestige. The Dallas SO sponsored the first triennial Dallas International Organ Competition in 1997. The Meyerson Symphony Center has increased awareness of music in Dallas and provided a venue for dozens of performing organizations as well as its principal tenant, the Dallas SO.
In 1957 the Dallas Civic Opera was founded with Lawrence Kelly, former manager of the Chicago Lyric Theatre, as general manager and Nicola Rescigno as musical director. A performance of L'italiana in Algeri, designed by Zeffirelli and starring Simionato, in Fair Park Music Hall on 12 November 1957 inaugurated the company's activities; using international and local casts it presents a wide repertory. Callas played Cherubini's Medea in 1958, the year the Dallas Civic Opera established an annual autumn season of three or four productions. During the next 40 seasons the company produced 102 different operas, including the world première of Argento's The Aspern Papers and the American premières of Handel's Alcina, Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Vivaldi's Orlando furioso. Many singers have made their US operatic débuts in Dallas, including Sutherland (in Alcina), Berganza, Alva, Caballé, Vickers, Olivero and Domingo. In 1974 Kelly died and Rescigno was appointed general manager for two years. He became artistic director in 1977, when Plato Karayanis was appointed executive director, and held that position until 1990. Graeme Jenkins was appointed music director in 1994. Until 1989 the Dallas Opera drew its orchestra from the Dallas SO. After the opening of the Meyerson Symphony Center in 1989, the Opera formed its own instrumental ensemble, drawing on freelance musicians in the Dallas area and graduates of the area's three major music schools: Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas and Texas Christian University. The company presents five or six operas a season, each performed four times. It weathered Dallas's economic collapse in the 1980s, largely through conservative programming which helped to maintain financial stability. In a statement issued in 1994, the Dallas Opera expressed a stronger commitment to 20th-century and new works, and to innovatory new productions of standard repertory.
Other musical activities in Dallas have risen and fallen with the city's economy. A recital series sponsored by the Dallas Civic Music Association (founded 1930, renamed Allegro Dallas in 1989) was discontinued in 1992, when the city was emerging from recession. The Lyric Opera Theatre of Southern Methodist University, founded in 1950, performed two to four operas a year and gave concert performances of American one-act operas. In 1983 its function was subsumed by the newly founded Public Opera (1984; renamed Lyric Opera of Dallas in 1987), which performed Gilbert and Sullivan and opera until 1992, when it too fell victim to a faltering economy. Chamber music has thrived in Dallas, particularly in the closing decades of the 20th century. Visiting string quartets and other chamber ensembles are sponsored by the Dallas Chamber Music Society (founded 1942), one of the oldest such societies in the USA. Voices of Change (founded 1974), an ensemble-in-residence at Southern Methodist University devoted to the performance of music by living composers, has commissioned more than 20 compositions and given over 40 world premières. Other well-established presenters are the Richardson Chamber Music Society (1989; renamed Chamber Music International in 1996), Walden Chamber Music Society (1981), Fine Arts Chamber Players (1981) and Dallas Classic Guitar Society (1969). The Dallas Bach Society (1982) presents performances of vocal and instrumental music before 1800, sometimes using period instruments. The Richardson SO (1961) and Dallas Chamber Orchestra (1977) have been joined in recent years by other community orchestras in surrounding suburbs. The city is home to many choruses, including the Turtle Creek Chorale, the Vocal Majority barbershop chorus, the Women's Chorus of Dallas and Mesquite Civic Chorus.
Fort Worth, 65 km from Dallas, is the home of the Texas Boys' Choir and the Fort Worth Opera Association, both founded in 1946, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth (1989) and the Fort Worth SO (1925), which performed at the Tarrant County Convention Center from 1968 to 1998, when it moved to the new Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall. In addition to its regular season, the Fort Worth SO presents a chamber orchestra series at Texas Christian University's Ed Landreth Auditorium, and is the quadriennial host of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The Cliburn Foundation also presents a recital series. These series and the Cliburn Competition all relocated to the Bass Performance Hall in 1998.
S. Acheson: Dallas Yesterday (Dallas, 1977)
R. Craven, ed.: Orchestras of the United States: Selected Profiles (New York, 1986)
W. Albright: ‘Southwest Passage: Dallas Opera Celebrates its Fortieth Anniversary’, ON, lxi/5 (1996–7), 36–8
L. Shulman: The Meyerson Symphony Center: Building a Dream (forthcoming)
SUSAN THIEMANN SOMMER/LAURIE SHULMAN, DONNA MENDRO