Tito Capobianco, Longtime Director Of The Pittsburgh Opera, Has Died At 87

Capobianco was with the opera from 1983 to 2000. In that time, he “brought the company from an operating budget of $900,000 to $5 million, added an endowment of $6 million and founded the training program for young singers now known as the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artists Program. He saw the move from Heinz Hall to the more spacious stage accommodations of Benedum Center. He introduced the use of supertitles by the company, and created the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, to replace the awkward scheduling required by the previous use of the Pittsburgh Symphony.”