Thaddeus Strassberger
Thaddeus Strassberger (born 1976) is an American, Italian and Cherokee Nation citizen who works as an
Biography
Born to parents of Cherokee, Irish and German descent, Strassberger grew up in
Career as opera director and designer
In 2005 Strassberger directed a new production of
In 2008 Strassberger was the director for
During the 2009/2010 season, Strassberger directed Mozart's
In 2010/2011, he returned to the Norwegian National Opera to direct and design The Rape of Lucretia and made his Austrian debut with the Tyrolean State Theatre with a new production of La fanciulla del West, while in 2012 he directed Nabucco for the Washington National Opera, a production which has subsequently been seen in Philadelphia, Minnesota, Montreal, Miami and in 2017 with the Los Angeles Opera, starring Liudmyla Monastyrska, Plácido Domingo, and Morris Robinson, conducted by James Conlon.[4] The production was presented in Valencia at the Palau de las Arts with Plácido Domingo and Anna Pirozzi.
His work with Bard SummerScape in the New York Hudson Valley has featured six rare operas:
- 2009: Les Huguenots[5]
- 2010: Der ferne Klang[6]
- 2012: Le roi malgré lui[7]
- 2013: The Oresteia[8]
- 2015: The Wreckers[9]
- 2018: Demon[10]
In 2014, he directed
In 2016, he directed the premiere of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's opera JFK for the Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with Opéra de Montréal.[15]
His production of La clemenza di Tito for Los Angeles Opera in March 2019 was featured in Opera News magazine.[16] Strassberger made his debut at the NCPA Beijing in August 2019 with the Asian premiere of Puccini's La fanciulla del West.[17] A new production of Puccini's Turandot was scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2020 at Oper im Steinbruch St. Margarethen, but was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] It was broadcast live on ORF television.[2]
Since 2011, he has created six new productions for the
In 2021, he served as Creative Director for the Opening Ceremonies Parade of the Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia. The event, produced by Balich Wonder Studio and Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority was attended by over 300,000 people and was broadcast live on national television.[3]
In 2022, he directed and designed a completely immersive production of Salome for Tulsa Opera.[19]
His work has been profiled in a full-length monograph edition of The Scenographer Magazine. [4]
His approach to the repertoire
Opera News magazine featured Strassberger in its Next Wave feature in August 2012.:[20]
Strauss and Hofmannsthal, Verdi and Solera — even going back to da Ponte and Mozart — you feel as if everyone is in this constant state of gloom and doom: the theaters are shutting down next year, the quality isn't what it was, we don't have the voices we used to have. When Verdi presented the score of Nabucco to Bartolomeo Merelli, they said, 'There's no budget.' Verdi said, 'I've got Strepponi and the whole cast,' and they said, 'You'll have to use sets from the warehouse,' and Verdi said, 'That's all right. Let's get it onstage.' That's no different from an American company saying you have to rub two sticks together to get the production on because our NEA budget got cut this year.
In the June 2012 issue of the British magazine Opera which examined recent repertoire trends which reveal a move towards the rare and unusual, Strassberger makes the following observation regarding the staging of some of them:
I love these works and they give me the freedom to turn up as a director and put them on stage without having to un-engineer what people thought they were going to be. The audience can focus on what they are experiencing rather than making comparisons with the past.[21]
Work with opera singer training programs
Strassberger has also served on several programs for opera singers in training. In 2006 he joined the faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute (IIVA) in
References
- ^ "Cherokee citizen enjoying opera production career". Cherokee Phoenix. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- ^ Jones, F. (31 March 2017). "BTW High School To Induct Five Into Hall Of Fame Including The Late Art Williams, Sr". The Oklahoma Eagle. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
- ^ "Mending Meyerbeer". Opera News. August 2009. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
- ^ "The Dark, Prophetic Vision of Giacomo Meyerbeer". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
- ^ "Der ferne Klang (Clinton-era staging)". Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
- ^ Smith, Steve (30 July 2012). "Le Roi Malgré Lui at Fisher Center for the Performing Arts". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ "Demon by Anton Rubinstein". fishercenter.bard.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
- ^ "ЗОЛОТАЯ МАСКА - ФЕСТИВАЛЬ И ПРЕМИЯ". Golden Mask. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^ "Winners 2016". eng.goldenmask.ru. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ "ЗОЛОТАЯ МАСКА – ФЕСТИВАЛЬ И ПРЕМИЯ". Golden Mask. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
- ^ "I due Foscari — Productions — Royal Opera House". www.roh.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
- ^ "JFK". www.operanews.com. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ "When in Rome". Opera News. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
- ^ redazioneGBopera (2018-09-13). "China National Centre for the Performing Arts NCPA – Beijing 2019 Opera programs". GBOPERA (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-04-29.
- ^ Operimsteinbruch.at. "Operimsteinbruch.at". operimsteinbruch.at (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- ^ Rabinowitz, Chloe. "New Immersive Production of Strauss' SALOME to Premiere at Tulsa Opera". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2022-05-11.
- ^ "OPERA NEWS - Opera's Next Wave". www.operanews.com. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^ Yehudi Shapiro, "Rarity Value", Opera (London), June 2012. Vol. 63, No. 6
- ^ "Opera in the 21st Century: Instrumentalists". Retrieved 2018-11-01.
- ^ "Silent Light". www.banffcentre.ca. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
- ^ "MSM Opera – Emmeline" (PDF).
External links
- Official website
- Extensive interview with Strassberger on Opera Lively
- Jeremy Eichler, "'Distant Sound' resonates anew: Schreker opera from 1912 in US premiere", Boston Globe, August 2, 2010, (Der Ferne Klang review)
- The Rape of Lucretia review (in Norwegian)