For more than two decades, International Opera Theater has united artists from across the world to create original Italian opera — the only company of its kind connecting so many cultures through this art form.
Founder & Artistic Director, International Opera Theater
Our Founder
Musician, stage director, opera singer, librettist, playwright, and vocal coach, Karen Saillant has spent more than five decades guiding singers and actors in the creation and performance of classic and original works of art. As founder and artistic director of International Opera Theater, she has directed and produced a world premiere Italian opera in Italy every year since 2003 — many drawn from the works of Shakespeare and rooted in social justice.
Her original work has been commissioned by institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Institution, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The National Constitution Center, and The American Composers Forum. Her productions have appeared at The International Festival of Culture in Bergamo before 80,000 attendees, at Rome's oldest opera house, and at The Academy of Music — the oldest opera house in the United States still in use — for its 150th anniversary celebration.
In 1976, Ms. Saillant became the first American to represent the United States in the International Opera Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is also a respiratory specialist and teacher of Breathing Coordination, carrying forward the work of her mentor Carl Stough to help singers, actors, and patients restore healthy respiratory function.
“The enthusiasm reached its height with the ovation given Karen Saillant. The orchestra, the staff, the singers, and the audience rose to give her wild applause.”
La Nazione, Florence
Why We Do This Work
Karen Saillant has long believed that opera's greatest power is its ability to carry the weight of real human experience — grief, resilience, and hope — across language and culture. That conviction shaped one of the most personal chapters of her career: her production of Brundibar, an opera composed in the Terezin concentration camp and performed there 55 times by children before most of its young cast was sent to the gas chambers.
Staging the work in the wake of her own family's tragedy, Ms. Saillant found in it a language for processing loss — and a reminder of why she has devoted her life to bringing meaningful, original opera to the stage.
“It's given me a chance to express my own grief as I cry for these children. We're all trying to heal from things, aren't we? Life is just that way.”The Philadelphia Inquirer
Recognition & Firsts
Composed by an Italian, conducted by an Italian, sung in Italian, and premiered in Italy — Shim Chung marked the first time in three centuries of Western opera that a work was set in Korea. Fourteen operas had previously been set elsewhere in Asia; none in Korea until IOT's premiere, staged to honor the 100th anniversary of the Korean independence movement.
World premiere Italian operas produced by IOT since 2003
The only company in the world connecting Italian opera across this many cultures
In attendance for IOT's performance at The International Festival of Culture, Bergamo