Skylark Opera was founded as Opera St. Paul in 1980 by the late singer/voice teacher Virginia Hardin Olson and by President Emerita Irma Wachtler with the mission of providing young Upper Midwest opera singers the opportunity to perform principal roles in a professional company. In 1986, the company changed its name to North Star Opera to reflect its audience and artist constituency, which was broader than the City of St. Paul. Initially, the company performed traditional grand opera as well as new or rarely performed works such as the Upper Midwest premiere of Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe.
In the late 1980's, the company undertook a strategic analysis to determine the unique role it could fulfill in the Twin Cities arts community which would complement rather than duplicate other opera and musical theatre activities. Noting the absence of operetta, Skylark incorporated operetta as a regular part of its repertoire. The company continues to be the only professional company in Minnesota that features operetta as a regular part of its program offerings.
In 1989, former New York City Opera conductor and Minnesota native Steven Stucki became Skylark Opera's Artistic Director. Steve has served as music director and conductor of all performances ever since and provides focused artistic leadership to the company. In the years since he joined the company, the repertoire has expanded to include musical theatre as well as opera and operetta.
The company undertook a comprehensive rebranding process (funded by a Bush Foundation grant) in 2006 to assess its market niche, patron support, and future market potential. One of the outcomes of that project was that the Board of Directors of North Star Opera changed the organization's name to Skylark Opera ("Skylark"), effective November 1, 2006.
Since 1991, Skylark Opera has performed 30 major productions of opera, operetta and musical theater, including classics such as Romberg's The Student Prince, Donizetti's The Elixir of Love and Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, as well as rarities like Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein and La Belle Hélène, Joplin's Treemonisha in its Upper Midwest premiere, Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars, Coward's Bitter Sweet, Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, Lehar's The Land of Smiles, Kalman's Countess Maritza, and Bernstein's Wonderful Town.
The company has made its main stage home at the E.M. Pearson Theatre at Concordia University in St. Paul since 1995, but it has occasionally performed at other venues in the Twin Cities area including the Southern and Ritz theaters in Minneapolis and the Bloomington and Hopkins arts centers. It offers an annual concert or other musical program at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. In addition, it performs for thousands of school children through its in-school outreach programs and special student matinees.