Opera Academy of California

OPERA ACADEMY OF CALIFORNIA

Yefim Maizel (CEO, Artistic Director & Stage Director) has directed and assisted in the former Soviet Union, in Europe and in the U.S. at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Kirov Opera, Wexford Opera Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera Theater and Opera Santa Barbara.

In 2005, Mr. Maizel established Opera Academy of California (OAC), a non-profit educational organization, where he serves as CEO and Artistic Director. In celebration of Mozart’s 250th Birthday, at the end of May of 2006, the Opera Academy of California presented “Happy Birthday, Mr. Mozart!”, an exciting evening of Opera Scenes from five Mozart operas. In January of 2006, OAC performed The Impresario (Mozart) at the Annual Gala of the East Bay Chapter of the San Francisco Opera Guild, which Yefim directed. The upcoming productions for OAC that Yefim Maizel will direct in 2007, include the Opera Scene Programs Russian Opera Gems and Spooky Times Strikes Again. In February of 2008, a production of Les Bavards, a charming and hillariosly funny farce by Offenbach, is planned.

In October 2005, he directed the first OAC’s Opera Scene Program for Halloween – Spooky Times: Witchcraft and Supernatural in Opera. In 2006, besides working for OAC and the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Maizel directed Dialogues des Carmelites (Poulenc) for BASOTI. In 2007, after Un ballo in maschera (Verdi) at the Opera Santa Barbara, he will direct The Merry Widow (Lehar) for the West Bay Opera, Lucio Silla (Handel) for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute and La Boheme for the Livermore Opera.

In the last couple of years, Yefim Maizel directed Madama Butterfly (Puccini) at the Metropolitan Opera (with Placido Domingo conducting), Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) at the Indiana University Opera, Les Bavards (Offenbach) for the Bay Area Summer Opera Training Institute (BASOTI) in San Francisco and Something New For The Zoo (Hoiby) for the Cinnabar Opera.

Since 1999 he has been at the Metropolitan Opera, where he directs Madama Butterfly (Puccini). He has assisted on productions of Mazeppa (Tchaikovsky), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich), Il Trovatore (Verdi), Manon (Massenet), The Gambler (Prokofiev), Idomeneo (Mozart), Don Carlo (Verdi), Elektra (Strauss), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart), Otello (Verdi), The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) and Das Rheingold (Wagner).

Previously, Mr. Maizel directed productions of: Madama Butterfly (Puccini) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) at the Opera Santa Barbara; Il Trovatore (Verdi) in Hungary; Die Fledermaus (Strauss), Carmen (Bizet) and Rigoletto (Verdi) at the Bay Shore Lyric Opera; Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Don Pasquale (Donizetti) and L'Italiana in Algieri (Rossini) at the West Bay Opera; a world premiere of Tales of the Nutcracker (Bohmler) at the Opera San José; Manon Lescaut (Puccini), Luisa Miller (Verdi) and Daughter of the Cabinet (based on La Fille de Madame Angot, by Lecocq) at the Berkeley Opera; Il Trovatore (Verdi) and Das Rheingold (Wagner) for the San Francisco Lyric Opera.

From 1993 to 2001, Yefim Maizel worked as an assistant stage director for the San Francisco Opera productions of The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Ruslan and Lyudmila (Glinka), Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Faust (Gounod), Rusalka (Dvorak), Prince Igor (Borodin), Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Betrothal in a Monastery (Prokofiev), The Tsar's Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) and Simon Boccanegra (Verdi).

Mr. Maizel is a member of the faculty of the Bay Area Summer Opera Training Institute (BASOTI) since 1998, where he directed Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams), Suor Angelica (Puccini), La Calisto (Cavalli), The Impresario (Mozart), Little Women (Adamo), Les Bavards (Offenbach) and numerous scenes from different operas.

Yefim regularly leads workshops and master classes for singers with the audience invited and also teaches opera appreciation classes for anybody who would like to enhance their knowledge and enjoyment of opera.

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