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In Conversation with Stephen Wadsworth
Stephen Wadsworth; Marc A. Scorca
Original Content •
3/13/2012
Director Stephen Wadsworth’s work has been seen at major opera houses around the world including La Scala, Vienna State Opera and Covent Garden. He recently directed the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Boris Godunov and the Broadway production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class. Join us as this leading artist sits down with OPERA America President Marc A. Scorca for an evening of candid conversation.
Stephen Wadsworth’s 2010—2011 season began with a new Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera, continued with a Met revival of Iphigénie en Tauride and a production of The Bartered Bride shared by the Met’s Lindemann program and The Juilliard School, and ended with Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway with Tyne Daly as Maria Callas. This season he directs Rodelinda at the Met, King Roger at Santa Fe and Don Giovanni at Juilliard, where he is, and begins a new translation of Beaumarchais’ Figaro plays commissioned by the McCarter Theater in Princeton. As The James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow and director of the post-graduate advanced training for singers at Juilliard and Head of Dramatic Studies for the Lindemann program, he teaches the full school year. He has directed at La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Edinburgh Festival and Netherlands Opera, as well as all over the United States, including at Seattle Opera, for whom he has staged ten productions, notably the Ring cycle (last revival 2013). He co-wrote A Quiet Place with Leonard Bernstein and has translated and adapted plays of Marivaux (published by Smith and Kraus), Molière and Goldoni. His work in the spoken theater includes Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy at Berkeley Rep, Molière’s Don Juan at Seattle Rep, the Old Globe in San Diego, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. and the McCarter, three Marivaux titles all over the country, and world premieres of Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy and Beth Henley’s Impossible Marriage at Roundabout. The French government named him a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, and he is an Artist-in-Residence at the Aspen Institute.
About the Author: Stephen Wadsworth’s 2010—2011 season began with a new Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera, continued with a Met revival of Iphigénie en Tauride and a production of The Bartered Bride shared by the Met’s Lindemann program and The Juilliard School, and ended with Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway with Tyne Daly as Maria Callas. This season he directs Rodelinda at the Met, King Roger at Santa Fe and Don Giovanni at
Juilliard, where he is, and begins a new translation of Beaumarchais’
Figaro plays commissioned by the McCarter Theater in Princeton. As The
James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow and director of the post-graduate
advanced training for singers at Juilliard and Head of Dramatic Studies
for the Lindemann program, he teaches the full school year. He has
directed at La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Edinburgh
Festival and Netherlands Opera, as well as all over the United States,
including at Seattle Opera, for whom he has staged ten productions,
notably the Ring cycle (last revival 2013). He co-wrote A Quiet Place
with Leonard Bernstein and has translated and adapted plays of Marivaux
(published by Smith and Kraus), Molière and Goldoni. His work in the
spoken theater includes Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy at Berkeley Rep, Molière’s Don Juan
at Seattle Rep, the Old Globe in San Diego, the Shakespeare Theatre in
Washington, D.C. and the McCarter, three Marivaux titles all over the
country, and world premieres of Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy and Beth Henley’s Impossible Marriage
at Roundabout. The French government named him a Chevalier of the Order
of Arts and Letters, and he is an Artist-in-Residence at the Aspen
Institute.
Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 2,500 organizations and individuals. An additional 16,000 subscribers now receive a variety of free and fee-based services. Under his leadership, OPERA America has administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences, and launched an endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C. to New York City in December 2005, the first step in the construction of a National Opera Center scheduled to open in 2012, has increased communication and collaboration with and among members both locally and nationally. Scorca has led strategic planning retreats for opera companies and other cultural institutions internationally, and has participated on panels for federal, state and local funding agencies, as well as for numerous private organizations. He also appears frequently in the media on a variety of cultural issues. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition and the National Performing Arts Convention (2004 and 2008). He is currently a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO, and serves as an officer of the board of the Performing Arts Alliance and the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as on the Music Advisory Board of Hunter College (CUNY). Scorca attended Amherst College where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.