[O'CONNOR] After more than a decade as general director of Opera Delaware, Brendan Cooke is preparing to step away and close a chapter that reshaped both his career and the company itself. This is Jenny O'Connor. Brendan Cooke will step down at the end of the 2025-2026 season, marking the end of an era for Opera Delaware.
[COOKE] It's weird to be giving this type of interview. I know that it's time and I know that it feels right, but it's like when I leave, it'll have been 14 years. That's a lot longer than the normal tenure.
[O'CONNOR] But Cooke's journey to leadership didn't begin behind a desk. It began on the stage.
[COOKE] My career started as a singer and I had the privilege of working with the old Baltimore Opera Company.
[O'CONNOR] And when that company folded in 2010, and several other colleagues found themselves unemployed and took matters into their own hands.
[COOKE] And we threw a couple hundred dollars of our own money on the table and said, you know, let's do something to keep people interested in opera. Cooke was able to take a step back and see an opportunity in front of him. You know, then I had a chance to lead rather than sing. But I realized through that process that like my value to the art form that I love, but more importantly to the people who make it, was not on stage, but it was behind it. And so to be honest with you, I applied for this job early in my career to get some practice.
[O'CONNOR] During his tenure, helped guide Opera Delaware through some of its most ambitious artistic moments, including pop-up operas, rare or rediscovered works, world premieres, and nationally recognized festivals.
[COOKE] I've always wondered why people view opera as something that's not for them, right? Because I always found it to be very welcoming to me and in the beginning days of opera, I mean, it was the entertainment for everybody. It was the people with no money who sat downstairs in what we now call the "fancy seats".
[O'CONNOR] One of his earliest defining moments came in 2014 during the Elixir of Love when he found out firsthand that silence really does speak louder than words.
[COOKE] The star tenor was singing the famous aria in the second act and the crowd before the applause there was seven seconds of silence. We had 800 people in a room that were experiencing something and this aria gets finished and they were like 'what the heck just happened?' That's the magic of opera.
[O'CONNOR] More recently Cooke says the pandemic forced some deeper reflection.
[COOKE] To be getting paid to run an opera company that couldn't put on opera was a really horrible feeling as the people that that make this art didn't have any work. So it really forced us to kind of refine who we are.
[O'CONNOR] And that rough patch and time to reflect resulted in Opera Delaware's company artist model, which places singers on a full-time payroll, which is an offer of stability that is rarely seen in the industry.
[COOKE] The people that make this business possible are one bit of bad luck or one health scare away from complete oblivion. The past couple years have been spent really trying to examine that.
[O'CONNOR] As Cooke prepares to step away, he does so with the company on strong footing and with a major milestone ahead. This spring, Opera Delaware will host the Opera America National Conference, making them the smallest opera company ever selected to do so.
[COOKE] I can't wait. I mean, I think they're going to see what we've known for a long time is we can do big city things in a small city environment.
[O'CONNOR] So, with his career at the opera still making huge and positive strides, how can he be so confident that this is the best time to step down? He says the community and his family are at the heart of the decision.
[COOKE] I might be able to land somewhere that could ironically have more impact on the future of Opera Delaware than I can have from where I currently sit.
[O'CONNOR] As Opera Delaware prepares for its next chapter, Cooke hopes the company continues building on what's been created.
[COOKE] If I keep watching from afar and I see that this is the company that has really changed the definition of what it means to work in opera, then I'll just be so delighted.
[O'CONNOR] Cooke will officially step down in August of 2026, following Opera Delaware's spring production and their hosting of the Opera American National Conference, which will hopefully be ending Cooke's career on a high note. For Delmarva Public Media, I'm Jenny O'Connor.
