Die Walküre Program

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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
November 1 - 30, 2017 | 27
DAVID POUNTNEY
(Director)
Previously at Lyric:
Four productions
since 1987/88, most
recently Das Rheingold
(2016/17); The
Passenger (2014/15);
Street Scene (2001/02).
Artistic director of Welsh National Opera
since 2011, the internationally celebrated
British director in recent seasons has created
productions of such formidable works as
Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto (Naples), Jenůfa
(Vienna), Lulu (Bolzano), Guillaume Tell and
The Haunted Manor (both in Warsaw), and
the world premieres of Rolf Wallin’s Elysium
(Oslo), Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce
and Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis (both in Cardiff).
Among his new productions this season are
La forza del destino (WNO), Zandonai’s
Francesca da Rimini (La Scala) and a Weill/
Schoenberg triple bill (L’Opéra du Rhin).
Pountney’s historic production of Mieczysław
Weinberg’s The Passenger was first seen at the
Bregenz Festival (world stage premiere), where
Pountney was Intendant from 2003 to 2014.
It has been remounted at Lyric, London’s
English National Opera, New York’s Lincoln
Center Festival, and the major companies of
Warsaw, Houston (U.S. premiere), Miami,
and Detroit. Former director of production at
English National Opera and Scottish Opera,
Pountney holds the Janaček Medal, the
Martinů Medal, and two Olivier Awards. He is
both a CBE and a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres,
has the Cavalier’s Cross of the Order of Merit
of the Republic of Poland, and was awarded
the Ehrenkreuz des Bundes Österreich in
2014. (See Director’s Note, page 34.)
JOHAN ENGELS
(Original Scenery
Designer)
Previously at Lyric:
Das Rheingold
(2016/17); The
Passenger (2014/15);
Parsifal (2013/14).
The eminent South
African designer (1952-2014) was renowned
internationally for his work in opera, theater, and
ballet. His designs for The Passenger have been
integral to the success of Mieczysław Weinberg’s
opera – first in its world stage premiere at
the 2010 Bregenz Festival and subsequently
in London, Warsaw, Houston (American
premiere), New York, Chicago, Detroit, and
Miami. In addition to his Bregenz productions,
highlights of Engels’s operatic career included
productions for London’s Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden (Arne’s Artaxerxes), the Zurich
Opera House (such rarities as Johann Strauss
II’s Simplicius, Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re,
and Chabrier’s L’etoile ), the Opéra de Marseille
(Ring cycle), Los Angeles Opera (L’elisir d’amore,
also seen in Madrid, Geneva, and Graz), the
Salzburg Festival (Turandot), Welsh National
Opera (Khovanshchina, Lulu, Don Carlos, the
latter coproduced with Houston Grand Opera),
the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra National
de Paris, Opera North, and Finnish National
Opera, among many other companies. In British
theater the designer was associated with the
Donmar Warehouse (including David Leveaux’s
production of Sophocles’s Electra, which
transferred to Broadway), Royal Shakespeare
Company, Almeida Theatre, and Chichester
Festival. In Vienna he designed for the Volksoper,
State Opera, and the Theater an der Wien.
ROBERT INNES
HOPKINS (Scenery
Designer )
Previously at Lyric: Das
Rheingold (2016/17);
Rigoletto (2012/13,
2005/06).
The renowned British
designer has earned
equal acclaim in opera and theater. He
collaborates frequently with his colleague from
Das Rheingold, David Pountney, including
Prince Igor (Zurich Opera House), Carmen
(Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre), and most recently
Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress (Naples’s Teatro
San Carlo), and Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis (Welsh
National Opera, world premiere). Among
the designer’s most important achievements
in opera are also works of Verdi (Rigoletto,
Welsh National Opera), Wagner (The Flying
Dutchman, WNO; Lohengrin, San Francisco
Opera; Tristan und Isolde, Venice), Janáček (The
Cunning Little Vixen, San Francisco Opera),
Britten (Peter Grimes, Billy Budd , both at The
Santa Fe Opera), Puccini ( Madama Butterfly,
Den Jyske Opera in Aarhus, Denmark), and
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (Die Soldaten for
the Ruhr Triennale, which won Germany’s
highly prestigious Opernwelt Award). Among
the designer’s current projects are The Lady in
the Van (Theatre Royal, Bath), Julius Caesar
(Royal Shakespeare Company), and Tosca (San
Francisco Opera). The designer’s theater credits
include productions in London’s West End for
the RSC, the Old Vic, Nottingham Playhouse,
Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal Bath, and the
Chichester Festival (King Lear, also seen at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music).
MARIE-JEANNE
LECCA
(Costume Designer)
Previously at Lyric:
Das Rheingold
(2016/17); The
Passenger (2014/15).
The Romanian-born,
London-based designer’s
operatic work has been seen internationally in
more than 40 productions directed by David
Pountney, most recently Prince Igor (Hamburg),
Un ballo inmaschera (Zurich), and Khovanshchina
(Cardiff). She has collaborated extensively with
many other prominent directors, among them
Keith Warner and Francesca Zambello. Projects
this season range stylistically from Rossini’s Mosè
in Egitto (Naples) and Zandonai’s Francesca da
Rimini (La Scala) to a Weill/Schoenberg triple
bill (Opéra National du Rhin). Her costumes
for Weinberg’s The Passenger have been seen in
Bregenz (2010, world stage premiere), Warsaw,
London, Houston (U.S. premiere), Chicago,
New York, Miami, and Detroit. Lecca has
worked in an exceptionally diverse repertoire,
including Mozart ( The Magic Flute, Bregenz);
Wagner (Rienzi, Vienna; Tristan und Isolde,
Cologne; Ring cycle, Covent Garden); Puccini
(Il trittico, Lyon; Turandot, Salzburg); French
works (Carmen, Moscow, Houston, Seattle;
Salammbô, Paris; La juive, Zurich; Pelléas et
Mélisande, Cardiff); 20th-century German
repertoire ( Die Frau ohne Schatten, Zurich; Moses
und Aron, Munich; Wozzeck, Covent Garden;
Die Soldaten , Ruhrtriennale, New York); Slavic
works ( Prince Igor, Zurich; King Roger, Bregenz);
American opera ( Thérèse Raquin, Dallas); and
musical theater (Pacific Overtures, London; West
Side Story, Bregenz). Lecca received the Martinu
Medal for Julietta (Opera North) and The Greek
Passion (Covent Garden).
FABRICE KEBOUR
(Lighting Designer)
Previously at Lyric:
Das Rheingold
(2016/17); The Passenger
(2014-15).
The French lighting
designer’s work will be
seen this season in more
than 15 major European opera houses, with
highlights including new productions of La
bohème (Opéra National de Paris), La forza del
destino (Welsh National Opera), and a Weill/
Schoenberg triple bill (Strasbourg, Colmar,
Toulouse). Kebour’s most recent work also
includes Ariadne auf Naxos (Opéra National
de Lorraine), Simon Boccanegra (Flanders
Opera), The Italian Straw Hat and The House
of Bernada Alba (Comédie Française), Macbeth
and Turandot (La Scala), La forza del destino
(Vienna State Opera), Faust (Opéra National de
Paris), The Magic Flute (Bregenz Festival), and
productions for the Vienna Volksoper, Opéra de
Monte Carlo, Paris’s Châtelet, and theMariinsky
Theater, among many other major theaters.
Kebour’s non-theatrical work includes designing
the 2006 opening and closing ceremonies of
the 15 th Asian Games in Doha and the Prague
Quadrennial of Performance Design and
Space exhibit “Light Speaks”, a retrospective
of world-renowned lighting designers. Kebour
received the 2015 Prix de la Critique and Prix
de l’Europe Francophone for Die lustigenWeiber
von Windsor (Opéra Royal de la Wallonie in
Liège). He has been nominated for best lighting
design at the Wales Theatre Awards (2015) and
the Molière Awards (2005, 2009, 2011).