Here’s a video describing my approach to directing opera. By Adam Ballachey.
Here is a video of the premiere of The Queen, my Lord, is Dead by Tomàs Peire Serrate, with libretto by Alejandra Villarreal Martinez, commissioned and produced by Michelle Rice, which I directed at UCLA in June of 2022.
In July of 2021, I directed Káťa Kabanová by Leoš Janáček at the California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda, for West Edge Opera. My fee was partially supported by a grant for Women Opera Directors from Opera America. Photos by Cory Weaver.
Just before the pandemic closed opera down, I directed Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek with Pasadena Opera in February 2020. Photos by Craig Schwartz.
From my first professional role - playing an altar boy in Canadian Opera Company’s Tosca - I’ve found the production side of opera fascinating.
After finishing a Master’s degree in Voice Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, I was bitten by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area and launched a local chapter of Opera on Tap, a company whose mission is to make opera accessible and commonplace, while providing singers with opportunities to hone their craft.
I produced four full productions: Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro set in a comic book, La Cenerentola as a holiday treat, La Tragédie de Carmen in 1930s San Francisco and La Bohème in the modern day Tenderloin.
Then I turned my attention to Pasadena Opera, which I co-founded with my artistic partner, conductor Dana Sadava. Together, we have produced four productions. I served as Assistant Director to acclaimed film, theater and TV director Jonathan Lynn, as we set Cosi Fan Tutte in San Francisco during the hazy days of the summer of 1967. Then, I embarked on my directorial debut, bringing my mentor Dr. Oliver Sacks back from the dead in Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.
In 2020, I directed another full production, exploring the ephemeral American Dream during an election year by presenting Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up at Boston Court Pasadena.
As soon as we were able to rehearse in person again, in July 2021, I directed Káťa Kabanová by Leoš Janáček at the California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda, for West Edge Opera. It was all outdoors! Here’s a review.
Images from The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat with Pasadena Opera in 2018. Photos by Adam Isaak.
