The internationally known opera director Francesca Zambello has been named the new general and artistic director of Glimmerglass Opera. She assumes her post in Cooperstown on September 1st, succeeding Michael MacLeod who leaves at the end of the summer season after a five-year tenure.
“Francesca Zambello brings a wealth of experience. She will take the company to a new level of excellence,” said Elizabeth Eveillard, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Glimmerglass Board.
“It is a great honor and personal pleasure to be invited to lead the company,” said Zambello in a press statement. Having previously directed one Glimmerglass production, Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride” in 1997, Zambello recalled finding “a vibrant theater and a company renowned for innovative productions as well as a training ground for all disciplines set in stunningly beautiful surroundings.”
Zambello has worked at all of the world’s major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Covenant Garden and La Scala. She is currently an artistic advisor to the San Francisco Opera where she is directing a new “Ring” cycle. Her theatrical credits apart from opera include a massive outdoor production of “West Side Story” for the Bregenz Festival in Austria and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” which closed last August after an 18-month Broadway run. Her stagings are considered fresh and insightful, but not particularly avant garde or extreme.
What Zambello does not bring to the company is any apparent administrative or fundraising experience, having never held a permanent leadership post at an arts organization. This is in contrast to her two predecessors, who apart from selecting the annual slate of operas focused primarily on administration. Paul Kellogg ran the company almost from its inception through 2005 and held a concurrent post at New York City Opera for the last years of his tenure. MacLeod’s experience was in orchestral and festival management.
Zambello will presumably direct opera at Glimmerglass, but still to be determined is how many commitments away from company she will maintain. A chronology of her recent work listed on her web site shows she is credited with 10 to 15 new productions and revivals per year. While 2011 will be her first season at the helm of Glimmerglass, her “Ring” cycle for the San Francisco Opera is slated to run June 14-July 3 that same summer.
Though born of American parents, Zambello, 54, was raised in Europe and speaks French, Italian, German and Russian. With her companion, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and critic Manuela Holterhoff, she maintains homes in New York, London and in the lower Hudson Valley near New Paltz.
Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Francesca Zambello, Standing up to armies, singers, waiters (2004)
Below are shots of a few Zambellow productions, by Ken Howard (from www.francescazambello.com)
Billy Budd, Pittsburgh Opera, 2007:
The Little Prince, San Francisco Opera, 2008:
An American Tragedy, Metropolitan Opera, 2005:
