Arthur Cosenza

Arthur Cosenza (October 16, 1924 – December 27, 2005) was an American impresario, stage director, and baritone of Italian heritage, who was particularly associated with the New Orleans Opera Association.

Cosenza was born in Philadelphia, and studied at the Ornstein School of Music from 1946 to 1948, the Berkshire Music Festival in 1947, and the American Theatre Wing from 1948 to 1950. In 1948, his friend Mario Lanza introduced him to Armando Agnini, principal stage director of the New Orleans Opera. Cosenza also met the New Orleans-born mezzo-soprano, Marietta Muhs, while she was studying at The Juilliard School. They married in 1950, and moved to New Orleans.

As a baritone, Cosenza made his debut in New Orleans in 1954, in a small role in Madama Butterfly, with Victoria de los Ángeles, conducted by Walter Herbert. He went on to sing twenty-five secondary roles with the Association, most notably as Schaunard in La bohème, in 1959, opposite Licia Albanese (his favorite soprano), Giuseppe di Stefano, Audrey Schuh, Giuseppe Valdengo, and Norman Treigle, conducted by Renato Cellini, and directed by Agnini. (The performance was released on Compact Discs by VAI, in 1995.)

In 1960, he directed his first of his many "traditional" productions for the company, Rigoletto. He also staged Il trittico, Andrea Chénier, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen (with Gloria Lane, Richard Cassilly, and Treigle), Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata (with Schuh), La bohème, Cavalleria rusticana (with Zinka Milanov), Aïda, Madama Butterfly, Don Pasquale (with Salvatore Baccaloni), Samson et Dalila (with James McCracken, Sandra Warfield, Louis Quilico, and Nicola Moscona), Rigoletto (with Roberta Peters), La traviata (with Virginia Zeani), Il segreto di Susanna, Tosca (with Gabriella Tucci, Plácido Domingo, and Cesare Bardelli), Les pêcheurs de perles, Manon (with Montserrat Caballé), Faust (with Albert Lance and Dorothy Kirsten), Macbeth (with Cornell MacNeil), Lucia di Lammermoor again (with Dame Joan Sutherland), Il trovatore, Pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana, Manon Lescaut, Attila (with Justino Díaz), Un ballo in maschera, The Medium (with Regina Resnik), Madama Butterfly again (with Raina Kabaivanska), Lucia di Lammermoor again (with Beverly Sills), Aïda again (with Jon Vickers as Radamès), Roméo et Juliette, Rigoletto again (with Sherrill Milnes), and Andrea Chénier again (with Harry Theyard), for the company. His final major staging was of Don Pasquale, in 1977.