Portal:Opera/Selected anniversaries/March

March is Women's History Month

1 March 2010 – Kaija Saariaho's opera Émilie premiered at the Opéra de Lyon with Karita Mattila, in the title role.
2 March 1961 – Simone Young (pictured), the first woman to conduct at the Vienna State Opera, was born in Sydney, Australia.
6 March 1853 – Fanny Salvini-Donatelli starred in the world premiere of Verdi's La traviata.
16 March 1894 – Sibyl Sanderson sang the title role in the world premiere of Massenet's Thaïs.
17 March 1665 – Élisabeth Jacquet was born in Paris. Her Céphale et Procris was the first opera by a woman composer to be performed at the Paris Opera.
20 March 1952 – Birgitta Svendén, mezzo-soprano and General Manager of the Royal Swedish Opera, was born in Porjus, Sweden.
23 March 2006 – Sarah Caldwell, American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director, died in Portland, Maine.
28 March 1911 – Myfanwy Piper, the librettist of Benjamin Britten's operas The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave, and Death in Venice, was born in London.