Our History

Spotlight is a sponsored program of Tulsa Opera. Inc. 2025 is our first season in Tulsa!

From 2018-2022, Spotlight enjoyed residency at the Hurley School of Music at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. We held our program online in 2020 and 2021 durig the COVID lockdown. In 2023, we were delighted to return to the beautiful Centenary campus.

Spotlight on Opera was founded in 2007 by current Executive Director Cindy Sadler as a one-week summer opera camp sponsored by St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. The faculty consisted of Cindy Sadler, Assistant Director Dr. Bruce Cain, and Music Director Chuck Dillard. There were approximately 15 students who spent the week preparing an opera scenes program which was performed on the last day of the camp.

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The camp was a success and the following year expanded to two weeks. In 2009, Spotlight expanded to three weeks and produced its first full opera, Gianni Schicchi, set in 1980s’ Austin, in an original translation by Cindy Sadler. The cast included first-time student, tenor Nicholas Simpson, who is now a faculty member, as Rinuccio.

At the conclusion of the 2009 season, the cast, which was comprised mainly of local singers, approached Cindy to request that Spotlight become a year-round organization. She agreed, and Spotlight became a community opera troupe in the fall/winter season, while continuing as an educational program in the summer.

In 2012, Cindy left the faculty of St. Edward’s University to make more time for her own performance career, and Spotlight went with her. It continued in its dual capacity, producing concerts, scenes programs, full-length operas, and a professional development series during the year and acting as a four-week educational program with two mainstage operas. United Christian Church hosted the program until 2015, when Spotlight moved to Messiah Lutheran Church.

2015 was an important turning point in Spotlight’s history. The year-round community opera troupe reorganized into Spotlight Concerts, a division which allowed year-round performances to continue with fewer demands on time and budget. We mounted our first touring children’s opera, Seymour Barab’s Little Red Riding Hood. Also in 2015, Spotlight incorporated as a 501(c)3 pubic charity.

In 2016, Spotlight celebrated its 10th Anniversary Season and realized a long-standing dream. We moved to Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, where for the first time, we had access to dorm housing for our students. The numbers of applicants and student body grew exponentially.

Spotlight thrived during its two years at Texas State and was welcomed by the administration, but we were now a five-week program with nearly forty students and fifteen faculty members. We required more space and time than the university was comfortably able to give, with its other commitment. We began looking for solutions. Immediately following the 2017 season, Cindy was offered a position as Artist in Residence and Director of the Singers’ Workshop at Centenary College of Louisiana. This small undergraduate college boasts a long history of musical excellence, and the six-acre jewelbox campus is almost empty during the summer. Then-Dean Dr. Gale Odom was enthusiastic about the idea of bringing Spotlight to the Hurley School of Music, and in Summer 2018, we produced our first season there: The Pirates of Penzance, La bohème, Little Red Riding Hood, Spotlight Cabaret, Death by Aria, Opera Scenes Showcase, and our traditional Faculty Welcome Concert.

In 2019, under the auspices of Interim Dean Dr. Cory Wikan, Spotlight on Opera proudly became an official program of the Hurley School of Music. We began expanding our outreach into the community with a special children’s program at Broadmoor Methodist Church, Spotlight Cabaret at Rhino Coffee Uptown and Flying Heart Brewery in Bossier City, the Ale & Arias concert at Flying Heart, and our children’s opera which appeared at the Shriner Children’s Hospital, Shreve Memorial Library, Friendship House Barksdale and Friendship House Allendale, the Norton Gallery, and the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. We also added our first end-of-the-season Gala Concert Opera: Verdi’s Aida, starring our distinguished faculty and guest artists in leading roles, with students taking comprimario and chorus roles.

Our 2020 and 2021 seasons went online due to COVID-19. We produced weekly live concerts via Zoom, children's opera, and several online productions.

In 2023 after a 1-year hiatus, Spotlight returned to Centenary College of Lousisan for a wonderful season including productions of Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Woman, Goldilocks and the Three Singing Bears, and an extensive recital series. We also enjoyed our first-ever performance with orchestra, a gala concert of Madama Butterfly.