Francesca Zambello
Francesca Zambello (born 1956) is a leading American opera and theatre director.
Contents |
[edit] Early life and education
Zambello lived in Europe when she was a child, learning to speak French, Italian, German and Russian. Zambello is of Italian descent, the daughter of Jean (née Sincere), an actress and Charles C. Zambello, a former actor[1][2] who became head of flight entertainment at TWA.[3] She attended Moscow University in 1976 and graduated from Colgate University in 1978.
Zambello is openly lesbian.[4]
[edit] Career
Zambello began her career as an Assistant Director to the celebrated opera directors Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Nathaniel Merrill. From 1984 to 1991 she was the Artistic Director of the Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee. In recent years she has worked at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Alfanos Cyrano de Bergerac with Plácido Domingo), the Washington National Opera (Wagners Ring, co-produced with the San Francisco Opera), Houston Grand Opera, the Bolshoi, Teatro la Fenice in Venice, the Royal Opera in London and the Paris Opera, as well as for the Seattle Children's Theatre, BBC Television, and the Bregenz Festival. She is an Artistic Advisor to the San Francisco Opera.
She has won awards for her work in France, England, Japan, Germany, Russia and Australia (the Helpmann Award).
Zambello made her Broadway directorial debut with the musical production of Disney's The Little Mermaid (2008). Zambello directed the regional production of the musical of The First Wives Club at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, California in 2009, but left the project because of "prior scheduling commitments".[5] She directed the musical version of Little House on the Prairie, which premiered at the Guthrie Theater in July 2008 and is currently touring the United States.[6]
Zambello developed a stage version of The Master Butchers Singing Club, the 2003 Louise Erdrich novel, with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman. The production premiered on September 11, 2010, at the Guthrie Theater.[7]
On September 1, 2010, Zambello took the reins of the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York, as its new general and artistic director. She immediately changed the company's name to Glimmerglass Festival and said that she would present a musical each season, starting with Annie Get Your Gun in the summer of 2011.
In May 2011, she was announced as artistic advisor to the Washington National Opera, after the departure of former director Placido Domingo [8].
In the summer of 2011, she directed Richard Wagner's complete Ring at San Francisco Opera.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Joe Novak, Something to Do with Wings: A Memoir iUniverse.com (2010), p. 287. Retrieved October 16, 2011
- ^ Ronald Blum, "After the scandal: Francesca Zambello's career takes off following Met fiasco" The Dedham Transcript (July 31, 2004). Retrieved October 16, 2011
- ^ "Entertainment Branch Set Up" Spokane Daily Chronicle (UPI) (January 4, 1965). Retrieved October 16, 2011
- ^ Harris, Paul (June 20, 2000). "Alive and singing". The Advocate. http://books.google.com/books?id=CGMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA113.
- ^ Hetrick, Adam and Jones, Kenneth."Zambello Bows Out as Director of The First Wives Club Musical" playbill.com, November 11, 2009
- ^ Gans, Andrew."Little House on the Prairie Tour, with Gilbert, Launches Oct. 13 in St. Paul" playbill.com, October 13, 2009
- ^ Kerr, Euan."Guthrie will premier Erdrich's "Master Butcher's Singing Club" mpr.org, April 7, 2010
- ^ http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/05/washington-slams-the-lid-on-the-domingo-era/
- ^ David Belcher (May 2011). "The Company She Keeps". Opera News 75 (11). http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2011/5/Features/The_Company_She_Keeps.html.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Internet Broadway database listing
- Interview at BUniverse
- Works by or about Francesca Zambello in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Francesca Zambello collected news and commentary at The New York Times
