Stephen Medcalf (director)

Last updated

Stephen Medcalf (born 1958) is a British stage director, particularly known for his opera productions, both in the UK and abroad. He received the Italian music critics' prize, Premio Abbiati , for "Best Director" in 2005. Medcalf is married to the British soprano Susan Gritton.

Contents

Life and career

Medcalf was born in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire and attended the University of Nottingham where he read economic and social history. While at Nottingham he sang in the university's opera group chorus and directed a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore at the New Theatre. After graduation, he did further training as a stage director at the London Drama Studio. His first job was in stage management at the Royal Northern College of Music. He then worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera which he describes as the place where he "learnt his craft and trade" working as an assistant director under Peter Sellars and Peter Hall. [1] His first production for Glyndebourne as the original director was the 1994 Le nozze di Figaro which inaugurated the festival's new opera house and was later released on DVD. [2]

From 1991 to 1997, Medcalf was Director of Productions at English Touring Opera, producing Don Giovanni , The Magic Flute , Orfeo ed Euridice , Rigoletto , Le nozze di Figaro, and L'elisir d'amore for the company. He married the soprano Susan Gritton in 1993, shortly after his production of L'elisir in which she sang the role of Adina. She has since sung leading roles in several of his productions including Tatyana in Grange Park Opera's 2013 Eugene Onegin . His original ETO production of L'elisir, which set the story in the American Mid-West, has subsequently been revived many times in Australia. [1] [3]

One of Medcalf's earliest productions in Italy was The Magic Flute for the Teatro Regio di Parma in 1995 conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. The production has since been revived at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Teatro Regio di Parma, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain. Medcalf went on to direct new several more new productions in Italy, notably A Village Romeo and Juliet (Teatro Lirico di Cagliari 2002), The Queen of Spades (La Scala, Milan 2005), Manon Lescaut (Teatro Regio di Parma 2005), and Falstaff (Teatro Farnese, Parma 2011). He was awarded the 2005 Premio Abbiati for "Best Director" for The Queen of Spades at La Scala. [1]

Medcalf was resident producer on the Opera Programme of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1991 to 2004 where he focused the programme's public performances on rarely performed works, such as the British premieres of Donizetti's Il giovedi grasso and Martinů's Ariane . He has since returned Guildhall as a guest director, directing Almeida's Spinalba in 2010 and the British and European premiere of Ned Rorem's chamber opera, Our Town in 2012. [4] [5]

Opera productions

Opera productions directed by Stephen Medcalf include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirella Freni</span> Italian soprano (1935–2020)

Mirella Freni, OMRI was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she appeared as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gino Vanelli</span> Italian opera singer

Gino Vanelli was an Italian operatic baritone who had an active international career from 1917 until his retirement in 1955. He made several recordings for HMV and Columbia Records, including complete recordings of the operas La boheme, Pagliacci, and Madama Butterfly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniela Dessì</span> Italian operatic soprano

Daniela Dessì was an Italian operatic soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Abbado</span> Italian conductor

Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma. Previously he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Valdengo</span> Italian baritone

Giuseppe Valdengo was an Italian operatic baritone. Opera News said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were invariably satisfying — bold and assured in attack but scrupulously musical."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ildikó Komlósi</span> Hungarian mezzo-soprano

Ildikó Komlósi is a Hungarian mezzo-soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulo Szot</span>

Paulo Szot is a Brazilian operatic baritone singer and actor. He made his opera debut in 1997 and his international career has included performances with the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala di Milano, Opera de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Australia, Liceo de Barcelona, among many others. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Theatre World Award. In 2012 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a musical, and in 2014 was nominated for the MAC Award for best Celebrity Artist becoming the first Brazilian to receive such honors. In 2022, he originated the role of "Lance" in the hit Broadway musical & Juliet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariella Adani</span> Italian classical soprano

Mariella Adani is an Italian classical soprano who had an active career in operas, concerts, and recitals from the 1950s through the 1980s. She has sung under the musical direction of Vittorio Gui, Carlo Maria Giulini, Nino Sanzogno, Oliviero De Fabritiis, and Peter Maag and under the directors Sandro Bolchi, Franco Zeffirelli Luchino Visconti, and Walter Felsenstein. A light lyric soprano, she has particularly excelled in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini. She has also been admired for her performances in Baroque opera. Retired from the stage, she now devotes her time to teaching singing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Demuro</span> Italian operatic tenor

Francesco Demuro, is an Italian operatic tenor. He was born in Porto Torres, Sardinia. By the age of ten, Demuro made his first stage appearance, and by the age of twelve, he had joined the Minicantadores, a group of young singers of traditional Sardinian songs in the genre known as cantu a chiterra of which he became a leading representative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Filianoti</span> Italian lyric tenor from Reggio Calabria

Giuseppe Filianoti is an Italian lyric tenor from Reggio Calabria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nino Machaidze</span> Georgian operatic soprano

Nino Machaidze is a Georgian operatic soprano. She performs in 19th-century Romantic repertoire, primarily in operas by Rossini and Verdi as well as French operas. Beginning her career at La Scala, she gained international attention after being cast as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the 2008 Salzburg Festival, after which she earned the nickname "Angelina Jolie of Opera" from the Austrian press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desirée Rancatore</span> Italian opera singer

Desirée Rancatore is an Italian dramatic coloratura soprano with an active career on the opera and concert stages of Europe.

Luca Canonici is an Italian opera singer who has had an active career singing leading tenor roles both in Europe and his native Italy.

Gloria Lane Krachmalnick was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international performance career from 1949 to 1976. In her early career she distinguished herself by creating roles in the world premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti, the Secretary of the Consulate in The Consul (1950) and Desideria in The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954); both roles which she performed in successful runs on Broadway and on international tours. For her performance in The Consul she was awarded a Clarence Derwent Award and two Donaldson Awards.

Ștefan Pop is a Romanian operatic tenor. He is considered among today's leading lyric tenors and he is best known for bel canto repertoire. He has won several prizes including, in 2010, Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition and the Seoul International Music Competition.

Damiano Michieletto is an Italian stage director especially known for opera. He has staged productions at leading opera houses and festivals worldwide. His awards include the 2015 Laurence Olivier Award for the production of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierluigi Samaritani</span>

PierLuigi Samaritani was a renowned opera director/production designer, who began his career at a young age, working alongside some of the greatest names in theatre, opera and ballet, such as Lila de Nobili, Giancarlo Menotti, Franco Zeffirelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev and many more. Samaritani had an enormous talent, which allowed him to take on all the roles the theatre, opera and ballet demanded, making sure to always be involved in all aspects of his productions even when delegating. From the creation of his "sketches" of the set, which were more like works of art in and of themselves to the smallest change in an extra’s costume, he was a true perfectionist preoccupied with every detail. His productions graced the stage of countless opera houses and theaters, amongst them La Scala di Milano, Teatro Regio of Parma, The Metropolitan Opera House, American Ballet Theatre and the Festival of Two Worlds at Spoleto, where he collaborated for many years, alongside his dear friend, Gian Carlo Menotti. The Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto founded in 1947 in Spoleto, by Adriano Belli created a special award carrying the name of Pier Luigi Samaritani, awarded each year to the set designer with the best set design of the opera season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Andguladze</span> Georgian operatic bass

George Andguladze is a Georgian operatic bass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svetla Vassileva (soprano)</span> Bulgarian opera singer (born 1965)

Svetla Vassileva is a Bulgarian opera singer (soprano).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacopo Spirei</span> Italian opera stage director (born 1974)

Jacopo Spirei is an Italian opera stage director. He is the winner of the audience prize in Salzburg for best production of the season 2012/2013 at the Salzburger Landestheater.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Allison, John (June 2013) "Stephen Medcalf". Opera , Vol 64, No. 6, pp. 696–702.
  2. 1 2 Rothstein, Edward (3 June 1994). "Of a Stately Opera Festival In a Demanding New Hall". New York Times . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  3. ↑ Allison, John (7 June 2013). "Eugene Onegin, at Grange Park Opera, review". Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  4. ↑ Clements, Andrew (9 November 2010). "Spinalba – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Guildhall School of Music and Drama. (17 April 2012). "Ned Rorem's Our Town is final opera production of the year". Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  6. ↑ Dervan, Michael (29 October 1992). "Blood feast". The Independent . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Couling, Della (31 October 1995). "Opera Pacini / Rimsky-Korsakov / Mascagni Wexford Festival". The Independent. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  8. ↑ Girardi, Enrico (29 April 2002). "Romeo e la sua bella, un amore da villaggio". Corriere della Sera , p. 23. Retrieved 6 November 2013 (in Italian).
  9. ↑ Morley, Christopher (31 August 2006). "Bartering over the border". The Birmingham Post . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  10. ↑ Rigolli, Alessandro (December 2005). "Il tiepido ritorno di Manon". Il Giornale della Musica. Retrieved 6 November 2013 (in Italian).
  11. ↑ Vela del Campo, Juan Ángel (12 October 2011). "Verdi juega (y gana) en casa". El País . Retrieved 6 November 2013 (in Spanish)
  12. ↑ Christiansen, Rupert (24 February 2012). "Aida, Royal Albert Hall, review". Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  13. ↑ Hall, George (27 October 2013). "Thérèse/La Navarraise; Cristina, Regina di Svezia – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  14. ↑ "Buxton Opera House and Pavilion Arts Centre". Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.