The Stivanello Costume Company, Inc. of New York recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.  Since 1924, three generations of Stivanellos have headed the firm, and they also own Italy’s oldest theatrical scenery company, the Sormani studio of Milano, which was founded in 1838, one year before young Giuseppe Verdi produced his first opera at Teatro alla Scala.  Serving La Scala and other important theaters, this company passed from one Sormani generation to another until Ercole Sormani sold it to the Stivanellos in 1984.

     For the last century, the Stivanellos have worked with over a hundred opera companies in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Chile.  These include Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Miami, Hartford, Providence, New Haven, Tulsa, San Antonio, St. Louis, Washington, Cincinnati, and dozens of smaller cities.  In many places, they actually helped to found the opera companies.  They staged and costumed the first Opera Cameos on television.  Additionally, their sets and costumes have been used in films such as Illuminata, Harlem Aria, and The Secret Lives of Dentists.  Their costumes have been displayed in the windows of Macv’s flagship store in New York, and at the Metropolitan Opera house.