Così fan tutte

Eve Summer is a director, producer, and choreographer whose upcoming directing engagements include new productions of Tosca with Opera Columbus, Don Giovanni with Opera Grand Rapids, and Thomas Albert’s Lizbeth with Opera Orlando. In 2022 she makes her debuts with Opera Carolina and the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at UNCSA. In the 2020–21 season Ms. Summer created new fully-staged and socially-distanced live productions of Così fan tutte for Opera Grand Rapids and Don Giovanni for Opera Columbus.

Notable directing credits include Trouble in Tahiti at the Glimmerglass Festival, Albert Herring for the Curtis Opera Theatre, The Little Prince at Tulsa Opera, The Tales of Hoffmann at Opera Orlando, The Mikado at Opera Grand Rapids, The Pearl Fishers at Opera Tampa and Opera in Williamsburg, Bluebeard’s Castle at Mid Ohio Opera, Xerxes for Connecticut Early Music Festival, John Musto’s Later The Same Evening at Boston University, Carmen for MassOpera, Aida and Lucia di Lammermoor at Boheme Opera New Jersey, Suor Angelica in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Così fan tutte for Connecticut Lyric Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor and Così fan tutte at Commonwealth Opera, and the world premiere of Larry Bell’s Holy Ghosts at the Berklee Performance Center.

Beginning her directing career with stage plays, Ms. Summers’ theater productions have included The Merry Wives of Windsor, Extremities, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Woolgatherer, ‘Art,’ Two Gentlemen of Verona, and her own play, Neighbors, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Berger.

A former professional ballet dancer and choreographer, Ms. Summer’s choreography credits include a commission and premiere with Contrapose Dance and Fort Point Theatre Channel, Elektra at Des Moines Metro Opera, Falstaff at Opera Colorado, Don Giovanni for Boston Opera Collaborative, and, in collaboration with Karole Armitage, the American premiere of Philip Glass’s The Witches of Venice at Opera Saratoga.

Ms. Summer has served as an assistant director and choreographer at the Glimmerglass Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Colorado, Tulsa Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Opera Boston.

George Manahan is the music director emeritus of the American Composers Orchestra and previously served as music director of Portland Opera and New York City Opera. He has appeared as guest conductor with the opera companies of Seattle, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Chicago, Saint Louis, Paris, and Bologna; the National, New Jersey, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis symphony orchestras; San Francisco Symphony; and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. A recipient of Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award, he was honored four times by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his commitment to 20th-century music during his tenure as music director of the Richmond Symphony. He has led premieres of Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, David Lang’s Modern Painters, Hans Werner Henze’s The English Cat, Terence Blanchard’s Champion, the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, and Laura Karpman’s Grammy Award-winning Ask Your Mama, in collaboration with soprano Jessye Norman, The Roots, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Recent seasons have included appearances at the Santa Fe Opera, Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, Music Academy of the West, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. The Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of his New York City Opera production of Madame Butterfly won an Emmy Award. Mr. Manahan’s discography includes the Grammy Award-nominated recording of Edward Thomas’s Desire Under the Elms with the London Symphony Orchestra (Naxos) and Steve Reich’s Tehillim (ECM Records).

Mr. Manahan is director of orchestral activities at the Manhattan School of Music as well as a frequent guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music.