Nicholas Muni - Stage Director

Previously at Portland Opera: Faust, 2006; The Turn of the Screw, 2009

Bold, no-holds-barred style and innovative ideas make Nic Muni an opera director for the 21st Century. His vision is unique, whether rethink-ing the standard repertoire and creating new twists to old favorites, or bringing engaging and accessible new or less familiar works to life. Having the experience of directing over two hundred productions with companies in North America, Europe, and Australia, Nic is able to meet a company’s needs, be it a minimalistic production or one of epic proportions. Nic is currently preparing a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Indiana University.

Recent projects include Macbeth with Canadian Opera Company in Toronto (nominated for a DORA award for best production of 2006), Show Boat (in the world premiere of his own version, based on the 1927 original production) with Stadttheater Bern, Tosca with Theater Erfurt, Albert Herring, Une Éducation Manquée, Le pauvre Matelot, Werther, Assassins, Così fan tutte, The Coronation of Poppea with Cincinnati Conservatory of Music; Faust with Vancouver Opera, Portland Opera and Canadian Opera (the latter of which was nominated for a DORA award for best production of 2007), Madama Butterfly and The Love for Three Oranges with Indiana University Opera Theater, The Turn of the Screw with Portland Opera, Pelléas et Mélisande at Canadian Opera which was nominated for a DORA award for best production of 2008 and the US premiere of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot at Glimmerglass Opera. Upcoming projects include Postcard from Morocco and Of Mice and Men with Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, L’amico Fritz with the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera where he previously directed the American premiere of the Neopolitan version of Bellini’s I Puritani, and the triple bill of Il ballo delle ingrate/Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda/Trouble in Tahiti with Portland Opera.

His fruitful relationship with Houston Grand Opera and Seattle Opera has resulted in two acclaimed co-productions: Il Trovatore, which has been seen in Seattle, Houston, Tulsa, Melbourne, at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and at the San Francisco Opera, and Norma, which has been presented in Seattle, Houston, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Additional work with Houston Grand Opera includes the world premiere of Jackie O, an opera based on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that was also presented at Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. For the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, he has created productions of La finta giardiniera, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Iphigènie en Tauride. For The Minnesota Opera he has directed Rusalka, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, and two world premieres: Libby Larsen’s Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, and Robert Moran’s From the Towers of the Moon. His tenure as the Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera saw new productions of Don Giovanni, Faust and The Turn of the Screw, and the North American premiere of Der Kaiser von Atlantis/The Maids, as well as revivals of his Pelléas et Mélisande, Salome, Elektra and Nabucco among others.

Internationally, his work at the Canadian Opera Company includes Lulu, Rigoletto, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Jenůfa, for which he received the 2003 DORA award for best theater production. In what is considered one of his most interesting projects, he directed a unique chamber version of Berg’s Wozzeck in a co-production of the Banff Center for the Arts and Montreal Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne. Nic made his European debut at Stadttheater Gießen with La Fille du Régiment. Its success led to subsequent engagements at that same theater for productions of Idomeneo, Die Zauberflöte, and The Rake’s Progress. Additional European credits include La bohème at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck, Austria, Der Fliegende Holländer at Opera Ireland; Street Scene with the International Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau; and the world premiere of La Conquista by Lorenzo Ferrero at the National Theater in Prague.

http://www.nicmuni.com/