Andreas Mitisek
(Stage Director/Production and Video Concept
Designer) Mr. Mitisek has been the General Director of Chicago
Opera Theater since June of 2012. He has also been Artistic and
General Director of Long Beach Opera (LBO) since 2003. A native
of Austria, he served as Artistic and Music Director of the Wiener
Operntheater from 1990 – 1997, the foremost contemporary
opera company in Austria. Mr. Mitisek has conducted at the Wiener
Volksoper, the Komische Oper in Berlin, the festival “Wien Modern”,
the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and others. He is also sought after as a guest
conductor in North America, leading productions for the Seattle Opera, Opera Company
of Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Opera
Theatre of St. Louis, amongst others. His work as director and designer for site-specific
productions in parking garages, swimming pools, night clubs, and warehouses has become
a successful hallmark of his work with LBO, and his first such production with COT, Ricky
Ian Gordon’s
Orpheus and Euridice
, was critically and publicly acclaimed. He is dedicated to
attracting new audiences to COT by exploring unorthodox venues and presenting new and
rare works (a key attribute of his leadership at LBO). Mitisek is on the board of directors
for OPERA AMERICA, the national service organization for U.S. opera companies. Mitisek
has been named by Opera News as one of the 25 people that will be a major force in the
field of opera in the coming decade. Mitisek was featured as a LA Tastemaker by
LA Times
Magazine
in 2009, Arts Leader of the Year by the Long Beach Arts Council in 2009, and
was highlighted as one of the “2012 People” by
LAWeekly
. Recent COT credits include:
conductor, stage director and production designer,
Maria de Buenos Aires;
director and
production designer
, Orpheus and Euridice;
conductor
, The Fall of the House of Usher
, and
director and production designer of
The Emperor of Atlantis / The Clever One
.
Francesco Milioto
(Conductor) Mr. Milioto is excited to continue
his string of successful collaborations with Chicago Opera Theater,
having recently conducted the double bill of
The Emperor of Atlantis
and
The Clever One.
Following his work with COT, he will once again
join the staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as cover conductor
for productions of Strauss’
Capriccio
and Puccini’s
Tosca
. As Music
Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra Mr. Milioto has
planned concerts for his eighth season that will highlight the music of
Jewish composers, explore music and the written word, and show an exciting juxtaposition
of opera and musical theater. His eighth year as Principal Conductor of the Highland Park
Strings will see him lead Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, and
collaborate with many talented local artists such as the Lincoln Trio. Also upcoming, Mr.
Milioto will conduct a performance of Bartok’s
Bluebeard’s Castle
with the NewMillennium
Orchestra, with which he also collaborated on COT’s production of
Giovanna d’Arco
. In
addition to leading Access Contemporary Music’s Composer ALIVE project and the Sound
of Silent Film Festival, he will soon release the album
1,001 Afternoons in Chicago
. This album
is the culmination of a wonderful collaboration with Strawdog Theater Company, and will
be performed live onWFMT this spring. Mr. Milioto will conduct the second annual Emilio
del Rosario International Piano Competition with the NewMillenniumOrchestra, and is
working closely with the Ravinia Festival’s outreach program to develop a Peter & theWolf
production for children.
ARTISTS
MACBETH
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