sweeney todd bios - fisher - sf opera · pdf fileand drama desk award for outstanding lighting...

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA Education Materials SWEENEY TODD

SWEENEY TODD

PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHY

RICK FISHER, Lighting Designer

Rick Fisher (Lighting Designer) is an American lighting designer. Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Fisher has spent most of his career in Great Britain where he has served as the Chairman of the British Association of Lighting Designers. He won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Billy Elliot: The Musical on Broadway, and he received the 2008 Helpmann Award for the Australian production of Billy Elliot. His Broadway credits also include Matthew Bourneʼs Swan Lake, Via Dolorosa, Some Americans Abroad, An Inspector Calls (Tony, Drama Desk awards) and Serious Money. Recent opera productions include A Heart of Darkness, Tsarina's Slippers, Wozzeck (Covent

Garden); Radamisto and Turandot (English National Opera);Salome (Japan); Peter Grimes (Washington, Oslo, Santa Fe); Betrothal in a Monastery (Glyndebourne, Valencia); Madama Butterfly, Albert Herring, The Last Savage, Wozzeck, Billy Budd, Radamisto, La Bohème, Daphne, Tea and Madame Mao (Santa Fe); The Fiery Angel and Turandot (Bolshoi); A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream (La Fenice); Gloriana and La Bohème (Opera North); and The Little Prince (Houston, New York, San Francisco). Other awards include two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting.


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JAMES LOWE, Conductor James Lowe (Conductor) Making his San Francisco Opera debut in 2015, James Lowe conducts Sweeney Todd, which he recently led at Houston Grand Opera. Other recent career highlights include Oklahoma! with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Catanʼs Florencia en el Amazonas and Floydʼs Of Mice and Men for Utah Opera; the world-premiere productions of Portmanʼs The Little Prince and Heggieʼs The End of the Affair at Houston Grand Opera, and Carmen, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail for that company; and Adamoʼs Little Women at Lyric Opera Cleveland. Lowe received a Grammy nomination as music director and conductor of Anything Goes, which received the 2011 Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical.” His other work as a music director and conductor on Broadway

includes a new production of Les Misérables as well as Gypsy starring Patti Lupone.


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LORENA RANDI, Choreographer

Lorena Randi (Choreographer) worked extensively as a dancer before establishing herself as a choreographer. After classical ballet training, she graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in contemporary dance and choreography. In her formative years she danced with the Michael Clark Company (1998-2006), with Mark Morris, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Aletta Collins, Arthur Pita and Charles Linehan, as well as in many productions for theatre, opera, performance art, fashion and film. Her recent theatrical work includes the choreography for Into the Woods (2014), Sunday in the Park with George (2013) and Sweeney

Todd (2011), all directed by Lee Blakeley at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, and for Candide (2013) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2012) directed by Sam Brown for Opéra National de Lorraine.In 2009-10 she researched and developed a show with the artist, Martin Creed, Work no:1020 which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Sadlerʼs Wells, London and the Museum of Modern Art, Chicago (2010-2012). Lorena began by choreographing music videos and collaborative ʻshortsʼ for Fashion and the Visual Arts. She then moved into choreography within the dance world, with two graduation pieces for London Contemporary Dance School (2007 and 2009). Working in a variety of genres, she collaborated in 2008 with photographer Nick Knight and Maison Margiela on a film for ʻshowstudioʼ. Lorena has also worked with the singer, Will Young, choreographing his live performances (TV and concerts) and his latest music video, and choreographed commercials for Addidas and EDF energy in 2012. Lorena often performs commissioned solo shows and ʻimprovised installationsʼ, most recently for ʻInternational Womenʼs Dayʼ at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Future Productions include: The Queen of Spades for English National Opera.


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IAN ROBERTSON, Chorus Director

Ian Robertson has been chorus director and conductor with San Francisco Opera since 1987, having prepared more than 300 productions for the Company. He was awarded the Olivier Messiaen Foundation Prize in 2003 for his artistic contribution to the preparation of the Companyʼs North American premiere of Saint François dʼAssise. Robertson made his San Francisco Opera conducting debut with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and has since led performances of Falstaff, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Carlo, Turandot, Il Trovatore, and La Bohème. He has led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in many concerts, including the Companyʼs recent Stern Grove appearance, and he has conducted Così fan tutte and La Périchole for San Francisco Opera Center and frequently

led Merola Opera Programʼs Grand Finale concerts. Other North American opera credits include productions with Sarasota Opera, Edmonton Opera, and Philadelphiaʼs Curtis Opera Theatre. Before joining San Francisco Opera, Robertson was head of music and chorus director of Scottish Opera, where he led numerous productions, including Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Pearl Fishers, The Secret of Susanna, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The Scotland native trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the University of Glasgow; he studied conducting under Sir Alexander Gibson. Robertson is currently the artistic director of the San Francisco Festival Chorale, which performed this summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the San Francisco Boys Chorus. A 2009 trip with the San Francisco Boys Chorus took him to the inauguration of the President of the United States, and this summer he led performances with the Boys Chorus in St. Petersburg, Russia and Copenhagen.


SWEENEY TODD COMPOSER BIOGRAPHY

STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Composer/Lyricist

Stephen Sondheim (Composer and Lyricist), born March 22, 1930, is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. At the age of 10, he became friends with Jamie Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. Hammerstein became Sondheimʼs mentor, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theatre. Sondheim graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where he began a lifetime of award winning, taking down the renowned Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, following which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt.

Sondheim's creativity came into play soon after departing from college when he wrote lyrics for such highly skilled composers as Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story) and Jule Styne (Gypsy) within the two year span of 1957 to 1959. Soon thereafter, in 1962, came one of Sondheim's most notable successes, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, in which he created both the music and lyrics. Two years later, a virtually unending series of successful musicals featuring both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, began their collective run extending well into the 1990s. Beginning in 1964 with Anyone Can Whistle, the list includes Company (1970), Follies (1971, revised in London, 1987), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994) and Road Show (2008).

Sondheim was also the lyricist for Do I Hear a Waltz (1965 with Richard Rodgers) and wrote new lyrics for Candide (1974 with Leonard Bernstein). Broadway reviews featuring his songs include Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, Youʼre Gonna Love Tomorrow and Putting it Together. In 1999, his first professional musical, Saturday Night (1954) finally had its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre. Sondheim also composed scores for the movies Stavisky and Reds and wrote songs for The Birdcage (1996) and Dick Tracy (1990), one of which, "Sooner or Later" won the Academy Award in 1990 for Best Song. For television, he wrote songs for Evening Primrose, co-authored the film, The Last of Sheila and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer, Invitation to a March and Twigs. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes was published in 2010, a book authored by Sondheim containing lyrics, both published and unpublished, from his first musical Saturday Night (1954) to Merrily We Roll Along (1981). The companion book of lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany, was published in 2011.

Sondheim is the recipient of five Tony Awards (Best Score for a Musical) for Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies and Company. All these shows also won New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine. Stephen Sondheim has served on the CounciI of the Dramatists Guild, the National Association of Playwrights, Composers and Lyricists, and served as its president from 1973 to 1981. In 1983, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1990, he was appointed the first visiting professor of Contemporary Theater at Oxford University. In 1993, he was the recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honors. To celebrate his 80th birthday, the former Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010.

Source: Wikipedia, Songwriters Hall of Fame; http://www.songwritershalloffame.org


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PATRICK SUMMERS, Conductor Patrick Summers (Conductor) Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director and Principal Guest Conductor for San Francisco Opera, Patrick Summers has led a vast repertory for the Company, including Ariodante; Samson et Dalila; Iphigénie en Tauride; Il Trittico, Xerxes, Der Fliegende Holländer; the world premieres of André Previnʼs A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), Jake Heggieʼs Dead Man Walking (2000), and Christopher Theofanidis and Donna Di Novelliʼs Heart of a Soldier (2011); the West Coast premiere of Heggieʼs Three Decembers (2008); and Heggieʼs Moby-Dick (2012). Summers has twice received Merola Opera Programʼs Otto Guth Award and was named its “Distinguished Alumnus” in 2001. The maestro has led an array of productions at the Metropolitan Opera, including La Traviata,

Lucia di Lammermoor, Così fan tutte, I Puritani, Rodelinda, Iphigénie en Tauride, as well as Madama Butterfly, Salome, and I Puritani, which were broadcast live in HD to movie theaters globally. Summers has also conducted at the worldʼs preeminent opera companies, including Barcelonaʼs Gran Teatre del Liceu, Lisbon Opera, Bordeaux Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bregenz Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera Australia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Dallas Opera. Other world premieres include Previnʼs Brief Encounter at Houston Grand Opera and Paul Moravecʼs The Letter at the Santa Fe Opera. Summers has overseen many of Houston Grand Operaʼs important artistic advances, including the formation of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. During his tenure, he has supervised and conducted seven world premieres as well as many seminal opera works not previously mounted by the company. He conducts Le Nozze di Figaro in Summer 2015.


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LEE BLAKELY, Director

Lee Blakely (Director) was born in Yorkshire, England and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and at Glasgow University. He was awarded a 2007 Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Blakeley's highly acclaimed production of A Little Night Music, with Leslie Caron, Greta Scacchi and Lambert Wilson, for the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 2010 was followed by the French première of Sweeney Todd (2011), Sunday in the Park with George (2013), Into the Woods andThe King and I (2014) all at the Châtelet. In North America Blakeley recently directed La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein, The Pearl Fishers and Madama Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera; Orpheus and Euridice for Minnesota Opera; The Tales of Hoffmann in Toronto; and Falstaff for Los Angeles Opera. Other credits include Il Turco en Italia for Angers Nantes Opera; Cosi fan Tutte at Londonʼs Royal College

of Music; Into the Woods for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; A Love for Three Oranges, A Night at the Chinese Opera (nominated for the 2008 TMA “Achievement in Opera” Award) and Die Fledermaus for Scottish Opera; as well as operas in Wexford, Philadelphia, Antwerp and London. He also directed the musical Pat Kirkwood is Angry, which has been performed in the UK and The Brits off Broadway Festival in New York. Blakeley has been an associate director for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and English National Opera; and has worked for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera New Zealand Opera, the Royal Flemish Opera, Monte Carlo Opera, and in Lille, Trieste, and Tenerife. Future work includes Handel's Riccardo Primo at St Louis and Rigoletto for Santa Fe.


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TANYA MCCALLIN, Production Designer

Tanya McCallin (Production Designer) is a distinguished theatre and opera designer who works extensively in Europe, the USA and Australia. She has been associated with many important London theatre productions including premieres of works by Arthur Miller, Pam Gems, Mike Leigh, Chekhov, Sheridan and Shakespeare. After training at Central St Martins School in London, she became resident designer with a number of British regional repertory companies. This led to a close association with Hampstead Theatre where her designs include Ancient Lights, Nancy Meckler´s production of Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, which was

subsequently seen in the West End, Paris and New York, Abigail´s Party, also filmed for the BBC, and Dennis Potter´sSufficient Carbohydrate, which later transferred to the Albery Theatre. Since then her works have regularly been seen in the West End and include Bodies, Exchange, Michael Frayn´s translation ofUncle Vanya (directed by Michael Blakemore) and Arthur Miller´s Ride Down Mount Morgan. She has designed many productions for the National Theatre, among them The Elephant Man, Who´s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and After the Fall. She has also worked at the Royal Court (My Mother Said), Regent´s Park Theatre (Hamlet, Richard III), The Donmar Warehouse (Fool for Love) and Chichester Festival Theatre (The Recruiting Officer) with director James Kerr and Ancient Lights, directed by Ian Brown (Hampstead). Jonathan Miller´s production of The Barber of Seville for the ENO was Tanya McCallin´s first major opera design, and is still in the repertoire; it has also been staged in Barcelona. Recently she has collaborated with David McVicar, for whom she designed Le nozze di Figaro (Royal Opera, 2006), Macbeth for the Mariinsky Theatre (also seen in London, 2001, Washington DC, 2002, and the Metropolitan Opera, 2003), Manon at the ENO (also Dallas, New Zealand and Houston Grand Opera), Les contes d´Hoffmann at the Salzburger Festspiele (and TV), the sets for Semele at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the costumes for Così fan tutte (Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg, Rigoletto at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden (also BBCTV and DVD), and Der Rosenkavalier at Scottish Opera (the last two productions have been revived).

sweeney todd bios - fisher - sf opera · pdf fileand drama desk award for outstanding lighting...

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