Romanian National Opera, Cluj-Napoca Pavel as stage director. Famous artists of the early days of the institution include Constantin Pavel, the first director of the institution and the first tenor to sing the Radames role in the Cluj-Napoca Romanian Opera, the Italian conductor Egisto Tango, the composer Tiberiu Brediceanu, the baritone Dimitrie Popovici-Bayreuth. The Romanian Opera managed to establish in a very short period of time a very good and prolific artistic team. In just its first 2 years (1919–1921), it staged 99 performances, including Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida", Charles Gounod's "Faust", de Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly", Nicolae Bretan's "Luceafărul", Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana", Richard
Edmonton Opera with them. After a number of successful productions, the group changed its name to the Edmonton Professional Opera Association, with David Ker as the first president and Letourneau as the music director. "Professional" was dropped from the company’s name in August 1966, as the then-artistic director, Irving Guttman, argued that it should be obvious to all if a company is professional. The first season, 1963/64, featured two productions: "Madama Butterfly" in October 1963, and "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci" in April 1964. In 1966, Letourneau convinced Guttman, then at the Vancouver Opera, to come to Edmonton. The artistic director from 1966