Andreas Mitisek To Lead Chicago Opera Theater 9/1/12

Andreas Mitisek, Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera (LBO), will become the General Director of Chicago Opera Theater (COT) on September 1, 2012. He will remain, with an extended contract, in his current position at LBO. Both organizations have earned national and international reputations for edgy and dynamic productions. In simultaneously leading both LBO and COT, Mitisek will form a new model for artistic and organizational collaboration. 

Mitisek explains, “We at LBO have been expanding the boundaries of the opera experience with adventurous repertoire and performances. Teaming up with COT, which has a similar repertoire and philosophy, will bring a heightened presence for both companies. Forming synergies between these organizations on artistic and organizational levels can serve as an innovative model for opera to thrive in the 21st century. Creating and sharing productions between these companies is one of the most exciting prospects of the new partnership.”

On January 1, 2012, Mitisek will become COT’s General Director Designate to begin working on future seasons for both COT and LBO. He will take over from COT’s current General Director Brian Dickie when Dickie’s contract ends August 31, 2012. Mitisek became LBO’s Principal Conductor in 1998 and Artistic & General Director in 2003. His vision and leadership have helped LBO more than double its budget (from $434K to $1.2M), eliminate a longstanding deficit, and raise subscriptions by 500% between 2008 and 2011. Mitisek transitioned the company from a festival format to a
seasonal format of four productions a year and will add a fifth production in September 2012. To support this new model and LBO’s organizational growth, the company will hire a Managing Director in the spring of 2012. Mitisek will remain LBO’s Artistic and General Director.

LBO's Board President Sue Bienkowski comments, “In the time Andreas has been ours alone, he's managed to push the artistic envelope so hard it has stretched into a tent, one big enough to include intimate works, comic works, works so emotional and dramatic that the audience had trouble leaving the theater, and above all works of such unparalleled imagination that all of us are swept out of the everyday and into the imaginative and new. We look forward to working together with COT which will give him a larger stage on which to work his magic.”

Marc Scorca, President and CEO of Opera America, states, “The appointment of Andreas Mitisek as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater -- in partnership with Long Beach Opera -- extends each company's creativity to the administrative realm. Both organizations and the communities they serve will benefit from shared productions as well as Andreas' dynamic leadership and artistic vision."

ANDREAS MITISEK (Complete Biography)
Andreas Mitisek is Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera (LBO), well-known
for its daring repertory and unconventional interpretations. Mitisek became LBO’s
Principal Conductor in 1998 and Artistic & General Director in 2003. He continues to
maintain LBO’S place as a leader in innovative and accessible opera. During his time
with the company, Southern California audiences have embraced LBO’s expanded
artistic offerings as evidenced by a significant increase in ticket sales and first-time
attendees. Important performances early in his tenure as LBO’s Artistic and General
Director were R. Strauss’ The Silent Woman, Handel’s Semele, Glass’The Sound of a
Voice, and a newly conceived production of Wagner’sThe Ring of the Nibelung ,
performed in two cycles over consecutive weekends.

In 2005, Mitisek extended his creative activities to include stage directing. He conducted
and directed an award-winning version of Schubert’s Winterreise around a story
combining Schubert’s song cycle and Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther. In 2007,
another new concept and treatment was designed for Grigori Frid’s opera, The Diary of
Anne Frank, wherein Mitisek incorporated a Holocaust survivor and her memoirs into
the story. The piece was performed in the transient space of underground parking
garages as a metaphor for dislocation and abandonment. In 2008, Mitisek staged Ricky
Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice in a 500,000 gallon Olympic size swimming pool.
The double bill of Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis and Carl Orff’s Die Kluge
was staged in the former engine rooms of the Queen Mary.

In LBO’s 2011 season, Mitisek conducted, staged, and designed Medea by Cherubini in a
furniture warehouse and conducted, staged, and designed the West Coast Premiere of
Akhnaten by Philip Glass.

LBO has presented one (1) site-specific production per season since 2007, including
performances in a popular night club, public parking garages, an Olympic swimming
pool, the hull of the Queen Mary, and a furniture warehouse. These performances have
sold out and audience demand has prompted LBO to provide additional performances.
As part of the 2012 season, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar will be performed outdoors
against the backdrop of a deserted six story office building in downtown Long Beach.
Under Mitisek’s tutelage, LBO has fostered strong collaborative partnerships with a
number of Southern California arts organizations. Such partnerships have become the
standard for LBO’s “Coincidence” series of insider season events. In 2011, LBO forged a
new partnership, co-hosting the Southern California Philip Glass Festival with Pacific
Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, LBO will partner with the Aquarium of the Pacific when
the Aquarium’s Great Hall will become the stage for the US premiere of The Paper
Nautilus by Gavin Bryars.

From 1990-1997, Mitisek served as Founding and Artistic Director of the Wiener
Operntheater (WOT) in his hometown of Vienna, Austria. He shaped WOT’s artistic
profile of presenting 20 th century and rarely seen works. He conducted premieres such
as: John Adams’ Nixon in China, Gy?rgy Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Harry Birtwistle’s
The Second Mrs. Kong, Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice, Krzysztof Penderecki’s The
Devils of Loudun, and Aribert Reimann’s Das Schloss.

Mitisek’s work as guest conductor has taken him, among others, to Komische Oper
Berlin (Fledermaus, Orpheus and Eurydice), Wiener Volksoper (Guiditta, Midsummer
Night’s Dream), Seattle Opera (Eugene Onegin, Der Freischuetz, Cosi fan tutte, Don
Giovanni), Philadelphia Opera Company (Salome), Austin Lyric Opera (Salome, Rigoletto,
Faust), Vancouver Opera (The Rake’s Progress), Opera Theater of St. Louis (American
Premiere of Michael Berkley’s Jane Eyre), Santiago de Chile (Eugene Onegin), and Tokyo
(Japanese Premiere of Minoru Miki’s Jouri). In 2008, he directed and conducted the
Italian Premiere of Nixon in China.

CHICAGO OPERA THEATER
Founded in 1974 by Alan Stone, Chicago Opera Theater (COT), has carved a significant
itself in the operatic life of Chicago and has reached an audience of hundreds of
thousands through its mainstage performances, community engagement, education
programs in Chicago Public Schools, as well as its renowned Young Artist Program.
Since Brian Dickie’s appointment as General Director in 1999, COT has evolved as an
opera company that is young, fresh, and critically acclaimed. The Chicago Tribune says
“Chicago Opera Theater is on a roll. The company's splendid, adventuresome shows
continue to prove that the spirit of operatic adventure is alive and well at the Harris
Theater." The Chicago Reader calls COT “Chicago’s most interesting opera company.”
Chicago Opera Theater’s 2012 Season opens at the Harris Theater on April 14 and runs
through September 23, 2012. The Season includes Shostakovich's Moscow,
Cheryomushki, Handel's Teseo, and Mozart's The Magic Flute.

LONG BEACH OPERA

Long Beach Opera (LBO) is internationally known for its cutting-edge interpretations of
unconventional repertory. LBO creates immediate, inventive, and often boldly avantgarde productions for an adventurous audience and stands apart from most opera
companies in the number of world, American, and West Coast premieres the company
has staged. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest opera company in the Los Angeles/Orange
County region with a performance history of more than 90 operas ranging from the
earliest works of the 17th century to operas of the 21st.
Bold site-specific stagings in such places as parking structures, a trendy nightclub, the
hull of an ocean liner, an Olympic swimming pool, and a furniture warehouse, as well as
performances in traditional theaters, reflect the company’s desire to give modern
audiences an immersive theatrical experience and to showcase opera in a new light.
Through its diverse productions, special concerts, and film screenings at multiple
venues in the Los Angeles/ Orange County areas, an active education program, and
student matinees, Long Beach Opera continues to make opera accessible to an everexpanding audience.

LBO’s new season begins January 29, 2012 with Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires and
continues through June 24, 2012 with selections including Poulenc’s The Breast of
Tiresias, Martinu’s Tears of a Knife, Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Nyman’s The Man Who
Mistook His Wife for a Hat. In September 2012, the first production of Outer Limits, a
new chamber opera series, opens with Gavin Bryars’ Paper Nautilus at the Aquarium of
the Pacific.
For additional information, visit: www.longbeachopera.org

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