Elio Bucky (they/he) is an opera stage director and projection designer. Their work celebrates plurality, truth, and innovation in the creative process. 

This season, Elio joins The Atlanta Opera as the 24/25 Glynn Studio Stage Director. They will serve as an assistant director for their productions of Rent, La bohème, The Magic Flute, Macbeth, Siegfried, and Semele. In February, Elio reunites with conductor John Morris Russell to direct The Seven Deadly Sins with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and artists from Wolf Trap Opera. As a projection designer, their work will be seen in Ana María Martínez’s Noche Española recital at Rice University and Die Fledermaus at Binghamton University 

In the 2023-2024 season, Elio directed new productions of Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins (Wolf Trap Opera), Puccini’s La bohème (Butler Opera Center), and Song Re-Imagined, a staged multimedia recital in collaboration with pianist Tamar Sanikidze that remixed song cycles by De Falla, Rachmaninoff, and Ibert. Additionally, they were the projection designer for Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at Binghamton University. 

As a champion for contemporary opera, Elio regularly collaborates with performers, composers, and librettists to present new work. Most recently, they served as the dramaturg for the piano-vocal workshop of The House of Yes, a new opera by Kamala Sankaram, Michael Kelly, and Kathleen Kelly (Wolf Trap Opera). Elio directed the Chicago premiere of Melissa Dunphy’s The Gonzales Cantata (Northwestern University) and served as the assistant director of the Chicago premiere of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s Dog Days (Northwestern University) and the world premiere of Michael Ching’s Alice & Anna (Savannah VOICE Festival). 

Elio studied voice & opera performance at Northwestern University and opera directing at the Butler Opera Center. An enthusiastic collaborator, Elio has assisted directors including James Darrah, Mo Zhou, and Joachim Schamberger. They have held prestigious directing fellowships at Wolf Trap Opera and the Music Academy of the West, and trained as a singer at the Chautauqua Institution. 

Debut Production : The Magic Flute, 2024

Website : https://www.eliobucky.com/