Francis Menotti (Stage Director) was born in Philadelphia in 1938.  After studying at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and perfecting his craft with Lee Strasberg in New York, he began his career with the American Shakespeare Festival in New York.  He has interpreted roles ranging from the opera works of Gian

Carlo Menotti (and is famous for his portrayal of Toby in The Medium) to the narrator in both Beethoven’s Egmont in the Alice Tully Hall in New York and Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon at the Charleston Festival.  Following in the footsteps of his adoptive father, Gian Carlo, Francis Menotti took over much of the responsibility for the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and became its Artistic Director in 1999.  The festival has been revitalized thanks to his spectacular artistic choices, and he has also made artistic contributions to the organization of more than 52 festivals throughout the United States, Italy, and Australia.  Francis will join COC this season as the stage director for A Tribute to Gian Carlo Menotti as well as Amahl and the Night Visitors. 

Pianofest (2005), and the American Society for Jewish Music (2005). She has been commissioned by American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Shanghai Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Women’s Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Joy in Singing, Symphony Space, and the Audubon Quartet.  Her operas, Mrs. Satan and A More Perfect Union, were presented as part of the New York City Opera’s VOX and Friends.  Her numerous works for young audiences include a musical, Everyone is Good for Something, commissioned by Stage One in Louisville, KY, and two works for Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath, The Frog Prince and What’s the Point of Counterpoint?  Bond has guest conducted the Houston, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Richmond, Utah, Albany, Buffalo, Dallas, Honolulu, Wuhan, Hunan and Shanghai Symphonies, the Central Opera in Beijing, and Opera Carolina.  She has recorded with the Shanghai Symphony and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and has served as Music Director of the Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, the Bel Canto Opera, Harrisburg Opera, and the New Amsterdam Symphony, and is Music Advisor of the Wuhan Symphony in China.  The first woman to be awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School, Bond worked with Roger Sessions, Pierre Boulez, Sixten Ehrling, Jean Morel, and Herbert von Karajan.  She also has Honorary Doctorates from Hollins College, Roanoke College, and Washington & Lee University.  Bond is the President and Artistic Director of Welltone New Music, Inc. and produces Cutting Edge Concerts, a new music series at Symphony Space in New York. She has conducted previous COC productions of The Consul, The Medium, and The Telephone as well as the Menotti gala.In 2007, she recorded Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief in Dallas.

John Boesche (Projected Scene Design) was the highly acclaimed scene designer for COC’s 2007 production of The Crucible and will return this season for our productions of A Menotti Tribute, Te Amo, and Carmen.  He has also had his scenic and projection designs for theater seen by Chicago audiences at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and others.  Broadway credits include The Glass Menagerie at Roundabout Theatre, directed by Frank Galati.

Regionally his work has been seen at Arizona Theatre Company, Asolo Theatre (Sarasota), Denver Center Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre (Princeton), Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival (NYC), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare at the Folger (Washington D.C.), South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa), and Theater On The Square (San Francisco), among others.  Mr. Boesche received a Joseph Jefferson Special Award for projection design in 2005.  Projection design accompanying the performance of music includes the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eos Orchestra (New York), and the Ravinia Festival Chicago.  Projection designs for dance include Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Mordine and Company, and Lucky Plush dance, among others.  His designs for opera have been seen at Austin Lyric Opera, Barbican Theatre Centre (London), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Lyon, Opera Pacifica, Portland Opera, Salt Lake Opera, San Francisco Opera, Theatre de la Monnaie (Brussels), Washington Opera (D.C.), and Vancouver Opera, among others.  In addition to his work in theater, Mr. Boesche designs media for his own gallery installations, history museums, and outdoor events.

He has been equally involved in the musical and dramatic sides of opera as a coach and stage director.During two decades in Europe, Glass was a leading coach and eventually “Studienleiter” (Director of Musical Studies, head of the coaching staff and director of musical preparation and rehearsal schedules for the entire repertoire) at the Zurich Opera in Switzerland.  He was also a coach and accompanist at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in France and a stage director for the International Opera Center in Zurich.  From 1980 to 1998, he was the Director of Opera at the University of Iowa, where he was the stage director, artistic supervisor, and coach for 36 highly successful opera productions with symphony orchestra, ballet, and excellent technical facilities in an auditorium seating 2,864.  Since 2001, he has been the stage director of four productions for Maine Grand Opera.  Other stage directing credits include the Utah Opera, the Cedar Rapids Symphony, Rutgers University, and University of Maine at Orono.  He has written more than 20 translations of complete operas, which have been used in numerous operation productions in the U.S.  Besides his work in opera, Glass has also made a life-long study of German Lieder and French art song, and has accompanied such well-known artists as Grace Bumbry, Martina Arroyo, and Simon Estes in song recitals all over Europe and North America, as well as in the Salzburg and Holland Festivals.  Seven of his books on German Lieder are currently available through Leyerle Publications, including the complete song texts of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and Strauss, with word-for-word translations, international phonetic alphabet transcriptions, and commentary.  His biography of the famous singer, Lotte Lehmann (he was her assistant at the Music Academy of the West) was published in 1988 by Capra Press of Santa Barbara.  His latest book, The Memoirs of an Opera Bug, was published in 2006 by Leyerle Publications. 

Evangeline Noël Glass (Assistant Stage Director) has sung leading soprano roles in several important European opera houses including Brussels, Cologne, Rouen, Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Koblenz, and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, as well as in the Salzburg Festival.  The operatic roles she has performed range from Musetta to Isolde.  She has sung the role of “Vita Mondana” in the premiere of Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo in the Salzburg Festival, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Nedda, Santuzza, Marguerite in Faust, the title role in Thaïs, Gerhilde in Die Walküre, and Jenny in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.  She studied opera and Lieder with the legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and again in Vienna and Salzburg during Lehmann’s annual visits to Europe.  She also studied with the distinguished Italian-American soprano Dusolina Giannini, with John Charles Thomas, and with Paul Althouse.  Evangeline has sung recitals in Europe and the United States and is currently active as a recitalist in her home state of Maine, specializing in German Lieder and French art songs, both in the original languages and in new English versions by her husband and accompanist, Beaumont Glass.  Mr. and Mrs. Glass have coached as a team the past seven summers at the American Institute of Musical Studies ("AIMS") in Graz, Austria and coach singers both at their home and at a studio in Portland, Maine.  Together, they directed the COC production of The Crucible in January, 2007.