Canadian soprano Teresa Stratas will be one of seven artists and others to be inducted into the OPERA America Hall of Fame. The Inductees will be honoured at the OPERA America Salutes Awards Dinner on March 7, 2025, in New York City.
The full list of 2024 Opera Hall of Fame inductees are:
- Adele Addison, soprano and teacher
- Justino Díaz, bass-baritone and teacher
- Jake Heggie, composer and mentor
- Carol F. Henry, founding trustee and philanthropist
- Wayne Sanders, artist, pianist, and arts leader
- Sarah Billinghurst Solomon, artistic administrator and philanthropist
- Teresa Stratas, soprano and actress
“The 2024 Opera Hall of Fame inductees, through their distinguished career achievements and remarkable dedication, have shaped the opera landscape in profound ways,” said Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO of OPERA America in a statement. “We are proud to honour their profound impact on opera in North America.”
The Opera Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame is a way to recognize the outstanding achievements of living artists, administrators, and advocates who have strengthened the world of opera as they’ve pursued their careers. The Hall of Fame was established in 2020 as part of the celebration of OPERA America’s 50th anniversary.
Nominations for the Opera Hall of Fame are open to the public on an annual basis. The nominees are then reviewed by a committee of opera professionals and supporters. The seven inductees for 2024 were chosen from a pool of 191 nominees.
The OPERA America Salutes awards dinner in New York City in March 2025 will include performances by singers from the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Proceeds from the event to go towards supporting the organization’s Leadership Intensive, New General Director Roundtables, and Mentorship Programs.
- Nominations for the 2025 cycle of the Opera Hall of Fame will be accepted in spring 2025; more information here.
The Nominees
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas combined her talents as both soprano and actress, and has often been credited as one of the most expressive opera artists of all time. Teresa’s journey to opera is the stuff of legends. She was born on a dining room table in Toronto’s Cabbagetown, then a blue collar neighbourhood, and her first singing gigs came in her parent’s restaurant, singing Greek folksongs from table to table.
She began her training at the Royal Conservatory of Music at age 12, and made her professional singing debut on CBC Radio the same year. Teresa launched her professional career at the Toronto Opera Festival in 1958, and won the Metropolitan Opera auditions the next year.
Over a career that spanned three decades, Stratas would perform at the Met in 41 different roles over 385 performances. Her signature roles included included Liù in Turandot, Nedda in Pagliacci, and Mimì in La bohème, and she brought opera to wider audiences in film adaptations of several operas, including Salome, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Bartered Bride, Pagliacci, La traviata, and Così fan tutte.
In 1994, she took on the extraordinary challenge (and made Metropolitan Opera history doing it) by singing the role of Nedda in Pagliacci opposite Luciano Pavarotti and then Magda in Il Tabarro opposite Placido Domingo on an opening-night double bill.
Teresa also performed with the Bolshoi Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Canadian Opera Company.
Later in her career, she would take two breaks from singing to pursue humanitarian work in India and Romania.
Other honours include her appointment to the Order of Canada in 1972, and in 2000, the Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts, along with five honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, York University, McMaster University, the Eastman School of Music, and The Julliard School.
Other Nominees
Adele Addison, lyric soprano and teacher, trained at Westminster Choir College and Princeton University, and continued her studies at Juilliard. Addison launched her professional career in New York City in 1952, and became a leading advocate in the revival of Baroque repertoire in the 1960s. As an educator, she taught at SUNY at Stony Brook, the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Manhattan School of Music.
Justino Díaz, bass-baritone and teacher, is native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and began performing at the age of eight. He went on to make his stage debut in 1957, and won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1963. He made his Met debut the same year. He’d go on to sing 39 roles in 400 performances with Met Opera.
Jake Heggie is the composer of 10 full-length operas, including Dead Man Walking, the most widely performed 21st century opera. His operas, one-acts, and more than 300 songs have been performed on five continents globally. Recent collaborations include Songs for Murdered Sisters with Margaret Atwood.
Carol F. Henry is one of the founders of Los Angeles Opera. She began volunteering for Los Angeles Opera League in 1981, and has served on the board of the opera company since it was founded in 1985. Carol currently serves on the boards of trustees of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, the Colburn School, and OPERA America.
Wayne Sanders is the co-founder of Opera Ebony in 1973, and has served as musical director since then. Sanders has performed as coach/accompanist for televised Opera Ebony concerts worldwide with singers including Jessye Norman, Florence Quivar, Kathleen Battle, George Shirley, William Brown, and Hilda Harris, among others. Sanders is currently on the voice faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon is artistic administrator and philanthropist. The native of New Zealand served as assistant general manager for artistic affairs at the Metropolitan Opera for two decades, playing a key role in planning and casting each season, along with supervising the budget and more. She began her career in 1972 with San Francisco Opera.
- For more information and tickets to OPERA America Salutes, see [HERE].
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