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Chamber Opera Chicago Office/Studio
1920 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago,
IL 60614
Tel: 312-951-7944
FAX: 312-951-7948
Email Us |
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Who's Who at Chamber Opera Chicago
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Francis
Menotti (Stage Director) was born in Philadelphia
and studied at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. He perfected
his craft with Lee Strasberg in New York and 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
took over much of the responsibility for the Festival
of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and became its Artistic
Director in 1999. The festival was revitalized thanks
to his artistic choices, and he has also made artistic
contributions to more than 52 other festivals throughout
the United States, Italy and Australia. In February 2007,
he directed a critically acclaimed production of The
Medium with the Monte Carlo Opera. Francis directed last season’s
COC production of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, which
received rave reviews such as “A triumph! Chamber
Opera Chicago dazzles!” (Chicago Sun Times) and “Hats
off to Chamber Opera Chicago!” (Chicago Tribune).
Francis also directed previous productions of Amahl
and the Night Visitors and A
Brilliant Life, A Brilliant Night,
Chamber Opera Chicago’s tribute to his father which
was called “one of the top shows of the year!” (Oak
Park Journal) |
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Steven
Daigle (Stage Director) has been the Artistic Director of the Ohio
Light Opera since 1999 and Associate Professor of Opera and
Head of Eastman Opera Theater Department, where he has served
as part of the artistic staff for more than 300 lyric theater
productions. He received his bachelor's degree in vocal education
and performance from Southeastern Louisiana University and
his master of music degree in opera stage directing from Florida
State University. Daigle's experience as a stage director
encompasses a range of repertory for the lyric theater stage.
Directing credits include Sweeney Todd,
Dialogues of The Carmelites, Susannah, Pride and Prejudice,
Il Turco in Italia, Cosi Fan Tutte, Transformations, La Bohème,
Passion, Suor Angelica, The Goblin Market, Le nozze di Figaro,
Candide, Xerxes, The Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Die
Fledermaus, Patience, The Tender Land, Porgy and Bess, L'elisir
d'Amore, The Merry Widow, The Sorcerer, Robinson Crusoe, The
Desert Song, The Grand Duke, Countess Maritza, The Gypsy Princess,
Angelique, Gianni Schicchi, Trouble in Tahiti, Christopher
Sly, Signor Deluso, Riders to the Sea, Camelot, Annie, and
Man of La Mancha for the Ohio Light
Opera Company, Eastman, the Lyric of Columbia Theater Players,
and Kent State Opera Workshop. Productions include collaborations
with Robert Ward, Carlisle Floyd, Louis Lane, Robert Spano,
and Evan Whallon. Articles and reviews of Daigle's work have
been published in Opera News, Opera
London, American Record Guide, Gramophone, Fanfare, Classical
Singer, and Opera Now. |
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Victoria
Bond (Conductor) is also a composer who has written
for every medium including opera, orchestra, ballet, and
chamber music. Her work has been widely performed and recorded
in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. Profiled
in the Wall Street Journal, on the NBC Today Show, in People
Magazine and in the New York Times, she has attracted the
kind of attention rarely focused on a classical musician.
Victoria’s conducting engagements have taken her to
China, Brazil and Europe, and in the United States, she
has led such prestigious orchestras as the Houston, Pittsburgh,
and Buffalo Symphonies. 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 has previously
conducted Chamber Opera Chicago’s productions of Vanessa,
Carmen, The Consul, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Medium,
The Telephone, and A Brilliant Life, A Brilliant Night. In 2007, she conducted a recording of Menotti’s The
Old Maid and the Thief with members of the Dallas Opera
and Symphony. |
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Dame Libby
Komaiko (Choreographer) is the Founder, Artistic
Director, and Choreographer of the Ensemble Español
Spanish Dance Theater, Ensemble Español Center for
Spanish Dance and Music, the Ensemble Español Spanish
Dance Youth Company, and the American Spanish Dance Festival,
now celebrating their 32nd anniversary season. Dame Libby
was the first American artist in history to be decorated
with Spain’s highest honor, the Lazo de Dama (Ribbon
of the Dame) by the King of Spain for her superlative work
in spreading the cultural and artistic values of Spain throughout
the U.S. At the age of 18, she was discovered by the legendary
José Greco and danced with his world famous Spanish
Dance Company. She also performed with Lola Montes and for
theater, opera, television, film and orchestra, including
guest performances with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1975 Dame Libby created
and founded the Ensemble Español, a full
company of 40 dancers and musicians for which she has choreographed
the majority of the company’s extensive 120+ repertoire.
She is a professor of Dance in the Department of Music and
Dance at Northeastern Illinois University, where the Ensemble
Español has been in residence for 32 years.
Her numerous awards have included the coveted Ruth Page
Award in 2003 and the prestigious International Latino
Cultural Center Lifetime Achievement Award, the
Pepsi Cola Hispanic Community Award, the esteemed Brightner
Award, the Art of Ethnicity Award of Excellence/Master
Teacher by the Chicago Office of Fine Arts/Chicago
Public Library, and awards for choreography from the National
Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, and Chicago
Office of Cultural Affairs. Recent collaborations with Chamber
Opera Chicago include Carmen, Te Amo: A Musical
Evening in Spain and Amahl and the Night Visitors. |
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Nyela
Basney (Chorus
Master/Coach) Founder and Director of the international
chamber music festival in Italy, Orvieto Musica, Nyela is
also Artistic Director and Conductor of the Allegro Chorale
and Orchestra in Texas. She was recently Music Director of
the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale where she led Masterworks,
Pops, headliner, tiny tots, educational and run-out concerts.
Formerly Associate Conductor of the Shreveport Symphony
Orchestra, she has also guest conducted the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony and the Virginia Symphony.
She was Assistant Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra
for three years, for whom she led concerts at Lincoln Center
featuring Peter Schickele. She is currently Associate Conductor
of El Paso Opera. Ms. Basney has also conducted Voices of
Change in Dallas, the Glens Falls Symphony in New York and
has served as cover conductor for John Nelson with the National
Symphony and for Andrew Litton at the Dallas Symphony. With
undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Eastman School
of Music, Nyela served as an Arts America Cultural Specialist
in Uruguay in 1993 for the United States Information Agency. |
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John
Boesche (Projected Scene Design) was the
highly acclaimed scene designer for COC’s productions
of The Crucible, A Menotti
Tribute, and Te Amo. 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. |
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