As one of North America's most acclaimed, creative, inventive, and exciting directors, Ken Cazan's career encompasses opera, musical theatre, legitimate theatre, and university teaching. Praised for not trying to reinvent opera plots but rather rediscover them, he has received wide critical recognition for the insightful and sensitive storytelling, realistic character development, and dramatic urgency of his thrilling productions.
Since 1985, when he began his directing career, Mr. Cazan has directed some 70 productions, over half of them new, for more than 41 companies in the United States, Canada and Italy. He enjoys working with young artists in contemporary and experimental repertory, but he has also had tremendous success with more traditional works. Ken Cazan began his operatic career as the first recipient of the "Outstanding Director Award" from the San Francisco Opera Merola Program. He proceeded to assist in various companies on 17 productions during the next two years. His first professional assignment was with Fort Worth Opera's Southwestern Opera Theatre, af-ter which he was immediately engaged to direct the critically acclaimed American stage premiere of Handel's Agrippina for he Forth Worth Opera. His second professional engagement was to direct The Rake's Progress for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio for which he received resounding acclaim.
In the current 1999-2000 season Mr. Cazan went to Toronto to direct Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream for the University of Toronto. In the winter of 2000 Mr. Cazan traveled to Winston-Salem and Toledo for a radical new multimedia production of Les Contes D'Hoffmann, Atlanta for Lucia di Lammermoor, and Central City Opera for his debut, creating a new production of Dialogues of the Carmelites. Most significantly in this season, Mr. Cazan staged a new production of Gershwin's Lady Be Good for Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy. The production was recorded and will be produced by RAI Television across Europe in the summer of 2000. This marks the first time an Italian opera house has produced a musical. In 2001, he will direct Un Ballo in Maschera and Il Trovatore for Atlanta Opera and Turn of the Screw as the inaugural production of Ohio Opera Theatre, for which Mr. Cazan is co-founder and also serves as the company's Artistic Director. Mr. Cazan will also return to Venice to revive his production of Lady Be Good.
In the 1998-99 season Mr. Cazan directed his Faust production for Madison Opera, a new, internationally acclaimed production of Pélléas et Mélisandefor the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and then went on to direct Giulio Cesare for the Portland Opera. This was fol-lowed by a new production of Die Fledermaus for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for which he also wrote a new dialogue translation based on the original French play and the original German libretto, as well as a new production of I Capuletti ei Montecchi for the Atlanta Opera. He also returned to Madison in the summer to direct a highly successful production of Side by Side by Sondheim. This is immediately followed by performing in Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep as Guest Artist in Residence at Kent State University.
Mr. Cazan's engagements in the 1997-98 season included debuts with Edmonton Opera (Romeo et Juliette), with Ohio State University (Into the Woods), and with a production of Tosca for Madison Opera. He returned to Atlanta Opera and Opera Hamilton for productions of Don Giovanni, and topped off his season with a revival of his acclaimed production of Salome for Santa Fe Opera.
Mr. Cazan's 1996-97 season included debuts with the Calgary Opera (The Mikado), Orlando Opera (L'elisir d'amore). He returned that season to Opera Hamilton to stage Un ballo in maschera, to Portland Opera for Die Zauberflöte, to Opera Omaha for Faust, and to the Atlanta Opera for a new revisionist production of Nabucco and later, a traditional evening of Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci . There followed his debut with the Opera Festival of New Jersey and a revival of his controversial production of Faust. The season ended with Mr. Cazan's Chicago area debut collaborating with composer Daron Aric Hagen to direct a new production of Shining Brow for the Chicago Opera Theatre, which the Chicago Herald Tribune called "brilliant."
Mr. Cazan directed Intermezzo for The Santa Fe Opera in Summer 1994, and returned to the company in 1995 to stage a new Salome. Other 1994-95 engagements included Così fan tutte for the School of Music at Yale University, productions of Madama Butterfly for Opera Pacific and Michigan Opera Theatre, and Don Giovanni for the latter company as well. 1995-96 engagements included a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor with Austin Lyric Opera in the autumn, followed by returns to the Canadian Opera Company for I Pagliacci in January, and to Atlanta Opera for Il trovatore in the Spring. During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta he staged a performance of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing at Symphony Hall as part of the Olympic Cultural Festival.
During season 1993-94 Mr. Cazan directed new productions of Faust for Greater Miami Opera and Opera Pacific, his production of Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera, and Die Fleder-maus for Portland Opera. He staged an American Musical Theatre scenes program for the Curtis Insti-tute of Music in the winter, and played Salieri in Amadeus to great success as Guest Artist-in-Residence at Kent State University. Mr. Cazan began the 1992-93 season in Toronto, where he staged Werther in a return engagement with the Canadian Opera Company. He directed Lettice and Lovage for the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and staged a controversial new Il barbiere di Siviglia for Nashville Opera and Tulsa Opera. He also staged Così fan tutte for Ken-tucky Opera, and a new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Austin Lyric Opera.
Ken Cazan's 1991-92 engagements included La Bohème with Seattle Opera to open the company's season, a new production of Il Turco in Italia for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the spring, and a new Carmen for The Atlanta Opera in August. Since making his debut with Seattle Opera in 1986 as director of Don Pasquale, Ken Cazan has returned to the company frequently. He also directed a successful new staging of Albert Herring for the University of Michigan's School of Music, where he spent three years as Director of the University's Opera Workshop Program.
Mr. Cazan's outstanding work in this country led to his European debut in 1987 collaborating with conductor Leonard Bernstein as director of La Bohème with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome. The semi-staged concert production was recorded and released on Deutsche Grammophon and video-taped by RAI Television, and was broadcast across Europe. In 1987 Ken Cazan also staged his first work with The Santa Fe Opera. His production of The Magic Flute was so successful that he was immediately reengaged to direct Le nozze di Figaro, and he returned to the company during the summer of 1991 to direct Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau.
Also in the 1990-91 season, Ken Cazan directed his first Otello for Kentucky Opera with Sir Alexander Gibson conducting, and he staged I Pagliacci, with Julius Rudel conducting, and Suor Angelica for the Canadian Opera Company. Mr. Cazan was also extremely successful in directing the American premiere of Mozart's Mitridate, Rè di Ponto for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Mr. Cazan made debuts with several opera companies during the 1989-90 season, including a suc-cessful Fidelio with the Syracuse Opera Company, and Mobile Opera's La traviata. For the Milwaukee Chamber Theater's Shaw Festival he produced Stephen MacDonald's Not About Heroes and Shaw's The Inca of Perusalem. During the summer he directed a new production of The Anastasia Affaire for Peninsula Productions in Ann Arbor.
In the 1988-89 season Ken Cazan directed several new productions, including a critically acclaimed Waiting for Godot for the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, La Bohème for the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, The Fantasticks for Skylight Comic Opera in Milwau-kee, Rigoletto for Opera Omaha, and Madama Butterfly for the Seattle Opera. During the summer of 1989 he directed Wolf Trap Opera's very successful Le nozze di Figaro, as well as The Turn of the Screw for Chautauqua Opera. In addition, as part of the Young Artist Program, he taught acting classes at the Metropolitan Opera, and he led master classes for the Theatre Department at the University of Nebraska and for the Opera Omaha Intern Artists Program. That summer he also directed To Gillian on her 37th Birthday for the Cain Park Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio.
Ken Cazan made his Canadian debut in spring 1988 with a tremendously successful production of Faust at Opera Hamilton that was broadcast over the CBC. His season included a new Sweeney Todd for Arkansas Opera Theatre, Die Zauberflöte for Seattle Opera, and La Bohème and The Juniper Tree for Opera Omaha. His updated version of Così fan tutte for the Skylight Comic Opera won the Milwaukee Critic's Choice Award for the "Best Ad-aptation of the Season." Mr. Cazan has also directed productions of Postcard from Morocco and The Cradle Will Rock for the Skylight Comic Opera.
Mr. Cazan has directed works by Argento, Beethoven, Bizet, Blitzstein, Britten, Donizetti, Gounod, Hagen, Handel, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Massenet, Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, and R. Strauss. He has directed productions for Atlanta Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Calgary Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Canadian Opera Company, Chautauqua Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Hamilton/Opera Ontario, Kentucky Opera, Madison Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Mobile Opera, Nashville Opera, Orlando Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera Pacific, Piedmont Opera, Portland Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Skylight Musical Theatre, Seattle Opera, Syra-cuse Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Tulsa Opera, Wolftrap Opera, Arkansas Opera Theatre, and Texas Opera Theatre. In musical/legitimate theatre he has directed frequently for the Milwaukee Chambre Theatre, Cain Park Theatre, and Peninsula Productions including works by Beckett, Gershwin, Shaffer, Shaw and Sondheim. His educational credits include directing for the Academy of Vocal Arts and Curtis Institute of Music in Philadel-phia, teaching at the Metropolitan Opera, University of Nebraska/ Omaha, Ohio State University, and University of Michigan where he ran the Opera Workshop program.
The list of singers with whom Mr. Cazan has worked is equally impressive: sopranos Kathleen Battle, Rebecca Caine, Barbara Daniels, Anita Johnson, Sylvia McNair, Erie Mills, Inge Nielsen, Ashley Putnam, Elizabeth Sö-derstrøm, Ruth Ann Swenson, Dawn Upshaw, and Sally Wolf; mezzos Joyce Castle, Marianne Cornetti, Denyce Graves, Marylin Horne, Kitt Reuter-Foss, Frederica von Stade, and Delores Ziegler; countertenor David Daniels; tenors Marcello Giordani, Jerry Hadley, Ben Heppner, Jorge Lopez-yañez, Vladimir Popov, Michael Sylvester and Eduardo Villa; baritones Richard Cowan, Dale Deusing, Brent Ellis, Thomas Hampson, Alan Titus, Jeffrey Welles, and Richard Paul Fink; basses Donnie Ray Albert, Eric Halvarson, Kevin Langan, Robert Lloyd, and Samuel Ramey.
Some of the conductors with whom Mr. Cazan has collaborated are: Richard Bradshaw, John Crosby, David Ef-fron, John Fiore, Sir Alexander Gibson, Ward Holmquist, Ken Kiesler, Henry Lewis, Stephen Lord, Sir Charles Mackerras, George Manahan, John Mauceri, Gustav Meier, Paul Nadler, Stewart Robertson, Julius Rudel, Gerard Schwarz, W. Fred Scott, and Willy Anthony Waters.
Mr. Cazan's European directing debut was a semi-staged concert version of La Bohème in Rome, Italy, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, recorded on Deutsche Grammaphon, and broadcast over RAI. Mr. Cazan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting/Directing/Dance from Syracuse University where he studied with Broadway director Arthur Storch and other members of the Actor's Studio.
