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Yefim Maizel (Stage Director) has directed and assisted in the former Soviet Union, in Europe, in Japan, and in the U.S. at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Kirov Opera, Wexford Opera Festival, Saito Kinen 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. The next production for OAC, which he will direct, will be a charming operetta-farce “Les Bavards” by Offenbach at the Legion of Honor Theater in San Francisco (May 2009).  March of 2007 featured “Gems of Russian Opera”, a performance and a master class for singers that was open to the public. 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.  In October 2005, he directed first OAC’s Opera Scene Program for Halloween – "Spooky Times:  Witchcraft and Supernatural in 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.

In the Fall of 2007, Yefim joined the Faculty of the Music Department at the California State University at Sacramento. He worked with the students on the Opera Scenes Program which were performed on the 10th and 16th of December 2007.

Mr. Maizel spends much time working with the young singers. He has a studio in San Francisco where he coaches singers on audition techniques and prepare them for performance of an aria, scene or a complete role.

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.