Stage director Alison Moritz is quickly garnering a reputation for both incisive takes on contemporary American opera and innovative interpretations of the classic repertoire.
Alison Moritz’s productions have been lauded as “raw, funny, surreal, and disarmingly human” by Opera News. Upcoming projects include filmed world premieres for the Glimmerglass Festival and Experiments in Opera, a new production of Cosi fan tutte for Washington National Opera, and a landmark 50th Anniversary event for the Kennedy Center featuring the NSO. Having begun her professional career in academia at Eastman School of Music, Alison is thrilled to join the Peabody Institute as the Interim Managing Artistic Director of the opera department.
Her diverse 2019-2020 season included mainstage debuts at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Omaha, the Ravinia Festival, and Rice University. Other recent directing highlights include the world premieres of Proving Up (Mazzoli/Vavrek; Washington National Opera), Taking Up Serpents (Sankaram/Dye; Washington National Opera), Chunky in Heat (Experiments in Opera, NYC), and Penelope (Snider/McLaughlin; new performing edition for Lyric Opera of Kansas City). Her production of Bernstein’s Candide was featured at the 2018 Tanglewood Festival as part of the composer’s centennial celebration, and won several regional awards (including Best Director).
Additional directing highlights include new productions of The Manchurian Candidate (Puts/Campbell; Austin Opera), Orpheus in the Underworld (New Orleans Opera), Abduction from the Seraglio (Madison Opera), Trouble in Tahiti (Opera Santa Barbara), and a genre-bending triple bill of rarities for Bard Conservatory (Pulcinella, Full Moon in March, and Svadba). Alison also recently directed productions of La Traviata (Opera Colorado), La Bohème (Austin Opera), and Madama Butterfly (Central City Opera). In fall of 2020, she made her first foray into the world of VR directing Miranda (Sankaram/Reese; co-produced by LUMA Projection Festival and Tri-Cities Opera).
Committed to contemporary American repertoire, Alison has workshopped pieces by David Hertzberg and Rene Orth for Opera Philadelphia, created new productions of The Tender Land, Our Town, Hydrogen Jukebox, Cabildo, and Gallantry, and presented staged concerts for IlluminArts Miami and New York Festival of Song. In 2015, Alison and her design team won the Opera American Director-Designer Showcase for their presentation on Marc Blitzstein’s Cradle Will Rock.
Previously, Alison served as the Resident Assistant Director at both the Minnesota Opera and The Atlanta Opera. Her professional credits include engagements with Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Memphis, and Chautauqua Opera. As a teacher and guest director, Alison has taught at Rice University, Bard Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Maryland Opera Studio, Crane School of Music, and for Steven Blier and Caramoor’s Vocal Rising Stars program. She continues her ongoing collaborations with innovative orchestras The Knights and Contemporaneous and her affiliation with the Kurt Weill Foundation.
Alison has worked and trained with companies such as the SITI Company of New York City, OPERA America, Geva Theatre Center, Third Rail Projects, Nautilus Music Theater, and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. She holds a B.A. in Music and Art History from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.M. from Eastman School of Music, and was the recipient of the 2015-16 SDCF/Kurt Weill Foundations Fellowship.
Debut Production : Candide, 2023
Website : https://www.alisonmoritz.com/
