Jeannette Aster

Jeannette Aster (born in Linz, Austria) is an opera director who has had a long association with the Canadian Opera Company.

Born in Linz Austria, Jeannette Aster was brought up and educated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Trained initially as a classical dancer, she obtained her BMus in Voice Performance from McGill University before going on to study Opera Production at the London Opera Centre in London, England.

After serving 5 years as a staff director in the Netherlands Opera, Hamburg State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Aster made her Canadian debut as stage director in 1977 at the National Arts Centre Festival in Ottawa with Mozart's Magic Flute, returning the following season to direct Cosi fan tutte.

Working with General Director of the Canadian Opera Company Lotfi Mansouri, she helped found the COC Ensemble (Young Artist programme) and in 1980 became its first resident director. In 1986, at the invitation of Peter Hemmings, she joined the newly formed Los Angeles Music Center Opera as a founding Associate Director and resident stage director.

From 1988 to 1998 Aster was Artistic Director of Opera Lyra Ottawa, fostering and promoting Canadian artists. In addition to presenting mainstage opera productions at the National Arts Centre, Aster commissioned 3 new operas, instituted a fully comprehensive training programme which included a boys' choir, teen chorus and Associate Artist Studio, and community-based education projects for adults and young people.

Since 1999 Aster has been Artistic Consultant and Director of Productions for Eurostage, a private opera producer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which develops new opera productions in collaboration with the State Operas in Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Russia for touring throughout Western Europe. Her productions of Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, and Lucia de Lammermoor have been presented in theatres in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland and England.

Jeannette Aster works internationally as an opera consultant and free-lance stage director. She has produced Verdi's Falstaff' in Los Angeles, Otello with Plácido Domingo in Los Angeles and Houston (after which Domingo invited her to direct this opera in Puerto Rico). Her staging of Tristan und Isolde, designed by David Hockney, at the Maggio Musicale in Florence won the 1990 International Critics Prize. Other international engagements include the European Premiere of Sir Michael Tippett's New Year at Glyndebourne and a revival of Katya Kabanova in Paris. She produced Salome at the Lyric Opera Chicago, Washington Opera, San Francisco Opera, Detroit, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Hong Kong Festival. Aster produced The marriage of Figaro in New Zealand, later directing La Bohème and Les Contes de Hoffman.

Aster regularly offers masterclasses in operatic role study and dramatic interpretation around the world in the many reputable opera and music schools.She also sits on the juries of several international voice competitions.

As of 2011 Aster was General Director of La Roche D'Hys - Domaine des Arts, an international centre for cultural encounters in Burgundy, France. The centre is an international professional development centre to host special projects involving creative thinking and the exchange of ideas. Programmes include workshops, masterclasses, seminars conferences, and artists' retreats in all the arts disciplines, and the presentation of concerts, theatrical and literary events. www.larochedhys.com

Sources

• Lumley, Elizabeth (ed.), "Aster, Jeannette", Canadian Who's Who 2004, University of Toronto Press, 2004, pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-8020-8892-9
• Opera Cleveland, Opera Cleveland Raises The Curtain On A New Era, March 19, 2007

External links

• La Roche D'Hys - Domaine Des Arts, Biography of Jeannette Aster