Cecilia Violetta López is dressed for mariachi and ranchero ballads. Photo by Vanessa Preziose

Cecilia Violetta López

Latina Prima Donna Steps Into Her New Leading Role

BY KENDALL HARDIN

An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it comes down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house. —Maria Callas

Acclaimed soprano Cecilia Violetta López takes the reins at Opera Las Vegas (OLV) in its 27th season as the first Latina general director of an
American opera company.

López comes full circle, having made her professional debut in Don Giovanni with OLV in 2012. She returned to perform more recently with the company in leading roles as Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Violetta in La traviata and the stand-out star in OLV’s “Silver Anniversary Salute” at The Smith Center.

She has called Las Vegas home for the past two decades, launching a prolific national and international career as a leading soprano after graduating from UNLV in late 2011 with a degree in vocal performance.

Named one of “Idaho’s Top 10 Most Influential Women of the Century” by USA Today and one of opera’s “25 Rising Stars” by Opera News, UNLV honored the soprano last year as Alumna of the Year. She is also the recipient of an Idaho State Concurrent Resolution honoring her life as an Idahoan and her work in the world of opera.

“Ceci,” as she’s known to her friends and colleagues, is the Mexican American daughter of immigrant parents from Rupert, Idaho. “I was raised on mariachi music and the folk songs my mother would sing as she worked in the beet fields,” López noted. “I didn’t discover opera until much later.”

An operaphile would be astounded at just some of the demanding leading characters she has mastered: Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Marguerite in Faust, Mimi in La Boheme, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Leonora in Il trovatore, Gilda in Rigoletto, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Juliet in Romeo et Juliette, Nedda in Pagliacci, Desdemona in Otello, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow and Maria in West Side Story, as well as titular roles in Suor Angelica, Manon and Frida.

She has racked up accolades for her ravishing but ill-fated role as Violetta in La traviata, which she has performed in countless American opera venues. Critic James Jorden described her as “a Violetta fully formed and ready for the great stages of the world.”

López has performed across the country with regional and national companies—including in Hawaii—and has soloed in recital halls, theaters, symphony halls and outdoor festivals. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, joined the artist roster of the Metropolitan Opera and has been honored with exhibits at the Idaho State Museum and the historical society museum in her hometown of Rupert.

Not shabby for 14 years of hard work since graduating from college!

Moving Toward Management

López has become a voice for opera as a vibrant art form in America and shares her story as both a performer and keynote speaker. She has been reviewed in The Washington Post and The New York Times and featured on NPR, PBS, Univision and Telemundo, among other outlets.

In 2014, she completed a two-year tenure as a soprano resident artist at Opera San José—her first professional contract. In 2021, she was chosen to be Opera Idaho’s first artistic advisor under General Manager Mark Junkert.

Known to local audiences as a singer, she took on added responsibilities as artistic advisor to expand repertoire, advocate for diversity in artistic practices and community initiatives, and collaborate with senior management on strategies that identify and secure financial support for the company.

“When I think of someone active in the field as a performer—who knows what’s happening nationally and internationally and knows our state—Cecilia is the perfect fit for the position,” Junkert said.

“Mr. Junkert took me under his wing to learn the business of opera,” López recalled. “He introduced me to the administrative side of running an opera company—managing finances and board relations, as well as programming, production and audience development.

“It created a two-way street for me to bring new ideas and models from the opera industry outside of Boise to management and the board.”

López’s colleagues were supportive as well. Julia Moulin-Merat, general director of Opera Columbus, board member of Opera America and a mentor with the Women’s Opera Network, encouraged her to apply for the OLV job.

“Julia encouraged me to consider opera management. ‘Give it five years,’ she advised. ‘Your heart is in the right place, and you have the tenacity for the leadership role.’

“Today, Opera Columbus is a renowned regional company—so relevant to the community,” López praised. “It’s because of Julia’s visionary leadership and the team she’s built. When I returned home from performing in Columbus, it was Julia who sent me the job posting from Las Vegas.”

“I’m excited and even giddy,” López exclaimed. “I’m ready with a five-year plan to reach financial sustainability. I see so many untapped resources.

“It’s all about slow, steady growth. And creating more structure to advance the company as we move forward—building OLV’s team, forging new partnerships and mounting performances someday soon at The Smith Center.

“The production of West Side Story I just finished with Opera Columbus was a sensational collaborative partnership among the city’s opera company, ballet company and symphony orchestra. I want to create that kind of synergy here.”

Launching OLV’s 27th Season (2025–26)

“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Ceci back to lead our dedicated team and to continue to build Opera Las Vegas’ prestige as Nevada’s only professional company member in Opera America,” said Jim Sohre, OLV’s general director since 2017.

“Ceci will open the season in style with a multimedia, autobiographic concert titled Mariposa Que Vuela to reintroduce herself to the Vegas Valley with selections from opera, zarzuela and mariachi.”

Staged classics will feature Mozart’s comedy Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Leoncavallo’s dramatic Pagiliacci and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, paired with a new companion piece, Four Lost Santas by Rose Freeman and Spicer Carr.

Annual themed outreach favorites will include Voices Raised for Vets, Holiday on Broadway, Opera Legends in Black and Celebración Latina. Visits to Myron’s at The Smith Center and Monzu Italian Oven + Bar are also on the calendar, along with OLV’s family-friendly tour of the operatic version of Pinocchio.

“I hope you’ll join me in welcoming our dynamic new leader, Cecilia Violetta López,” Sohre said, “with her boundless energy, fresh ideas, incomparable enthusiasm and leadership expertise as OLV’s general director.”

We’ve come a long way since Boston’s Sarah Caldwell was the only female opera impresario in America. Today, it’s time for more women to make their mark. Here’s to a new era of opera in Las Vegas’ cultural horizon!

Note: Early in her career, writer Kendall Hardin worked for Seattle Opera’s innovative impresario Glynn Ross in the 1970s and later stepped in as one of the first women CEOs to run an opera company in the 1990s when she reorganized Pensacola Opera—still a thriving regional company today.