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P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
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February 22 - March 19, 2016
on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cry-
Baby, The Red Shoes
), comedy (
Born Yesterday,
The Royal Family
,
Twelfth Night
), and drama
(
Seascape, Oleanna
,
A Man for All Seasons
,
Mauritius
,
Doubt
,
Little Women
,
Dracula
,
Frozen
,
Ivanov
). Zuber has designed costumes
for
La fête des Vignorons
(Vevey, Switzerland,
1999) and the live NBC/Universal telecasts
of
The Sound of Music
and
Peter Pan.
Major
productions this season include
Otello
at the
Metropolitan Opera and
Fiddler on the Roof
on Broadway. Zuber is a recipient of the Outer
Critics Circle Awards, Henry Hewes, Lucille
Lortel, Ovation, and Obie awards.
JENNIFER TIPTON
(
Lighting Designer
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Eight productions since
1988-89, most recently
Il trovatore
(2014-15);
La clemenza di Tito
(2013-
14);
Hansel and Gretel
(2012-13).
The American designer’s lighting for
Romeo and
Juliet
will be seen at the Metropolitan Opera
next season, after the production’s premiere
in Salzburg and its remounting at La Scala
and Lyric. Among Tipton’s varied projects
this season are Richard Nelson’s
The Gabriel
Family
(New York’s Public Theater),
The
Nutcracker
(American Ballet Theatre, Orange
County Performing Arts Center), and pianist
Sarah Rothenberg’s Marcel Proust Project in
Houston. Tipton’s recent projects in dance
include productions by choreographers Paul
Taylor (
The Uncommitted
, American Dance
Festival) and Alexei Ratmansky (
Romeo and
Juliet
, National Ballet of Canada). Recent work
in theater includes
The Testament of Mary
on
Broadway and at The Barbican in London;
Richard Nelson’s
The Apple Family Plays
(world
premiere) at New York’s Public Theater;
Shakespeare’s
Henry IV/V
,
directed by Joseph
Haj and Michael Donahue at Playmaker’s
Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina; and Tennessee Williams’s
Vieux Carré
in the version presented by New York’s Wooster
Group. Tipton’s most recent opera productions
include
L’elisir d’amore
and
Maria Stuarda
(Metropolitan Opera), David Lang’s
Love Fail
at BAM, and Sir David McVicar’s production
of
La traviata
(Welsh National Opera). Tipton
teaches lighting at the Yale School of Drama.
She holds the 2001 Dorothy and Lillian Gish
Prize and the 2003 Jerome Robbins Prize. In
2008 she became a United States Artist “Gracie”
Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow.
MICHAEL BLACK
(
Chorus Master
)
Chorus master since 2013-
14; interim chorus master,
2011-12.
Lyric Opera’s chorus
master’s activities last year,
following the company’s
2014-15 season, included preparing the
choruses for
The Marriage of Figaro
at Western
Australian Opera, Britten’s
War Requiem
with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
(conducted by Sir Andrew Davis), and Haydn’s
Harmoniemesse
for his Grant Park Festival
debut. Chorus master from to 2001 to 2013 at
Opera Australia, Black prepared the OA chorus
for more than 90 operas and many concert
works. At Opera Australia he progressed
from rehearsal pianist to assistant chorus
master and children’s chorus master, before
his appointment as chorus master. He has
served in that capacity for such distinguished
organizations as the Edinburgh International
Festival, Holland Park Opera (London), and,
in Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
(including Rachmaninoff’s
The Bells
, led
by Vladimir Ashkenazy), the Philharmonia
Choir, Motet Choir, and Cantillation chamber
choir. As one of Australia’s most prominent
vocal accompanists, Black regularly performed
for recitals, broadcasts, and recordings (he
has been heard numerous times in Australian
Broadcast Corporation programs). He has also
been a lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium
of Music, of which he is an alumnus. Black
holds a master’s degree in musicology from the
University of New South Wales.
CHASE BROCK
(
Choreographer
)
Lyric Opera debut
Equally successful in
theater, opera, dance, tele-
vision, and video games, the
American choreographer’s
current work includes
projects with three New York theaters:
The Public Theater (
First Daughter Suite
),
the Vineyard Theater (
Gigantic
), and the
MCC Theater Lab (
Alice By Heart
). Brock’s
Broadway choreography includes
Spider-Man:
Turn off the Dark
and Sam Gold’s revival
of
Picnic
. Among his Off-Broadway credits
are
The Blue Flower
(2012 Lucille Lortel
Award nomination),
Tamar of the River
(2014
Joe A. Callaway Award finalist), numerous
productions for The Public Theater (
The
Winter’s Tale
,
Much Ado About Nothing
,
The
Tempest
,
Venice
), and The Flea Theater (
The
Mysteries
). Regional choreography includes
Waitress
(American Repertory),
The Hunchback
of Notre Dame
(La Jolla Playhouse, Paper Mill
Playhouse),
Twelfth Night
(The Old Globe),
and
Be More Chill
(Two River Theater). In
addition to works for television (“Late Show
with David Letterman,” “Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade”) and video games (Dance on
Broadway), Brock is artistic director of
the Brooklyn-based contemporary dance
company The Chase Brock Experience (27
choreographies, including
American Sadness
,
Whoa, Nellie!
,
Mirror Mirror
,
Junk and Lies,
The Song That I Sing; Or, Meow So Pretty
).
An alumnus of Robert Wilson’s Watermill
Center, Brock made his Broadway debut at
16 in Susan Stroman’s revival of
The Music
Man
. He is the subject of the documentary
Chasing Dance
, which was nominated for a
New England Emmy Award in 2014.
B. H. BARRY
(
Fight Director
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
The Ghosts of Versailles
(1995-96).
Internationally acknow-
ledged as one of today’s
foremost experts in stage
combat, the English fight director has created
fights for more than 40 Broadway productions,
including
Golden Boy
,
Dividing the Estate
,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
,
Sly Fox
,
Macbeth
,
Kiss
Me, Kate
,
Into the Woods
,
My Favorite Career
,
Moon Over Buffalo
,
City of Angels
, and most
recently
Fiddler on the Roof
. Barry trained at
the Corona Stage Academy before joining
the Royal Shakespeare Company as fight
director. He has written a book series about
fights in Shakespeare’s plays and different
ways of staging them. The 2008 Salzburg
Festival’s
Romeo and Juliet
was Barry’s 56th
time orchestrating the demises of Tybalt and
Mercutio. He has created many fights for the
Metropolitan Opera (
La fanciulla del West
,
Wozzeck
,
The Great Gatsby
,
Otello
), the New
York Shakespeare Festival, Covent Garden,
and English National Opera. In addition
to fight choreography for numerous widely
seen feature films (among them
The Addams
Family
,
Macbeth,
and
Mulan
), he worked
for 17 years in television for the soap opera
All My Children
. Barry has taught at all the
major drama schools in Britain and America,
including The Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art, Yale, and The Juilliard School. Barry’s
numerous awards include a Tony Award for
Lifetime Achievement and a Drama Desk
Special Award for consistent excellence in fight
staging.