Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 6 - Champion

35 | Lyric Opera of Chicago JAMES ROBINSON DIRECTOR Previously at Lyric: Co-director/ Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021/22) In 2009 the American director became Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he has directed such productions as Nixon in China , The Death of Klinghoffer , Street Scene , Miss Havisham’s Fire , The Golden Ticket , La traviata , Alice in Wonderland , Champion, and “ 27 ”. He has created new productions for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and the major houses of Seattle, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, and Santa Fe, as well as for the Baltimore Symphony, Hollywood Bowl, and Minnesota Orchestra. Internationally, he has mounted new productions for Canadian Opera Company, Royal Swedish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera Australia, the Wexford Festival, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Recent productions include Porgy and Bess (Met), Champion (Washington National Opera), Vanessa (Santa Fe Opera), Dolores Claiborne (San Francisco Opera, world premiere), Nixon in China (San Diego Opera), Eugene Onegin (Seoul Arts Center), and M. Butterfly (Santa Fe Opera, American premiere). ALLEN MOYER SET DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Designer/ The Flying Dutchman (2022/23), Set Designer/ Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021/22). Among the distinguished designer’s credits are Orfeo ed Euridice , Fire Shut Up in My Bones , and Champion for the Metropolitan Opera, along with productions for New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Dallas Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Scottish Opera, Washington National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and the Glimmerglass and Wexford Festivals. His numerous Broadway credits include Grey Gardens (Tony/Drama Desk nominations, Henry Hewes Award), Paradise Square (Tony nomination), The Lyons , Lysistrata Jones , Thurgood , The Constant Wife , and Twelve Angry Me n. Other theater credits include productions Off-Broadway for The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, The Roundabout Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and numerous other regional theaters nationwide (including the Goodman and Steppenwolf). Moyer designed Carousel and Showboat with the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Delibes ballet Sylvia (The San Francisco Ballet) and Romeo and Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare (Mark Morris Dance Group), both choreographed by Morris. MONTANA LEVI BLANCO COSTUME DESIGNER Lyric debut Blanco’s recent highlights include The Skin of Our Teeth and A Strange Loop on Broadway; Emma O’Halloran’s Mary Motorhead / TRADE for Irish National Opera; sandblasted by Charly Evon Simpson and White Girl In Danger by Michael R. Jackson at the Vineyard Theatre; Daddy by Jeremy O. Harris at the Almeida Theatre in London; Epiphany by Brian Watkins at LCT/ Mitzi Newhouse; Mother Russia by Lauren Yee at La Jolla Playhouse; and Grass by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Signature Theatre. Opera credits include Iphigenia (Kennedy Center), Hansel and Gretel (Houston Grand Opera), and La Rondine (Minnesota Opera). His numerous Off-Broadway credits include: Fairview , Is God Is (SOHO REP); A Strange Loop , Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons); Ain’t No Mo’ (Public); The House That Will Not Stand, Red Speedo, Nat Turner (NYTW); Fabulation, The Death of the Last Black Man, In the Blood (Signature); Fefu and Her Friends, He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (TFANA); and Pipeline, Ghost Light, War (Lincoln Center). Blanco is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BMOboe Performance), Oberlin College (BA History), Brown University (MA Public Humanities), and the Yale School of Drama (MFA Design). Costume Designers are supported by the Richard P.and Susan Kiphart Costume Designer endowment. DONALD HOLDER LIGHTING DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Carmen (2016/17). Donald Holder has worked extensively in theatre, opera, dance, architectural, and television lighting in the US and abroad for over 30 years. He has designed 58 Broadway productions and has been nominated for 14 Tony awards, winning the Tony for Best Lighting Design for The Lion King in 1998, and for the 2008 revival of South Pacific . Recent Broadway productions include: Tootsie, Kiss Me Kate, Anastasia, My Fair Lady, Oslo, Straight White Men, She Loves Me, Fiddler On The Roof, The King and I, On The Twentieth Century , and many others. Projects at the Metropolitan Opera include Porgy and Bess, Samson et Delilah, Otello, The Magic Flute , and the premiere of Two Boys . He has worked at most of the nation’s leading resident theatres, and has designed over 100 Off-Broadway productions. His television/film work includes the theatrical lighting for seasons one and two of Smash (NBC- Dreamworks), Oceans 8 (Warner Brothers Pictures), The Bad Witch (HBO Max), and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon). Lighting designers are supported by the Mary-Louise and James S. Aagaard endowment in honor of Duane Schuler.