CREATIVE TEAM
Gabriela Lena Frank
Composer
From: Berkeley, California.
LA Opera: mainstage debut after the 2020 Digital Short The Five Moons of Lorca.
About: Recent premieres include Pachamama Meets an Ode for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and premiered at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Seguín; Haillí-Serenata, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony; and Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered by the National Youth Orchestra under Marin Alsop. El último sueño de Frida y Diego, her first opera, will be staged by the Metropolitan Opera in a future season, following the company's staging of her Conquest Requiem in 2024. Upcoming premieres include a concerto grosso for the legendary Takács Quartet and Picaflor, a major work commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra to conclude Frank's tenure as Composer-in-Residence there. Her music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer. Inc.
Nilo Cruz
Librettist
From: Matanzas, Cuba.
LA Opera: mainstage debut after the 2020 Digital Short The Five Moons of Lorca.
About: In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Anna in the Tropics. He has won awards from the Kennedy Center Fund, American Theatre Critics and the Humana Festival for New American Plays; as well as grants from the NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation. His plays include Dancing on Her Knees, A Park in Our House, Two Sisters and a Piano, A Bicycle Country, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Lorca in a Green Dress, Beauty of the Father, Hurricane and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. His work has been seen at South Coast Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Washington D.C.’s Studio Theatre and New York’s Public Theater; and around the world. He wrote the libretti for The Conquest Requiem and The Santos Oratorio for Gabriela Lena Frank and for Jimmy López’s Bel Canto for Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Lina González-Granados
Conductor
From: Cali, Colombia.
LA Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor (2022, debut); The Rape of Lucretia (2023). Upcoming: Fire and Blue Sky (2024). She became Resident Conductor last season.
About: In 2020, after winning the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition, she was named Solti Conducting Apprentice under the guidance of Riccardo Muti, continuing until 2023. Her 2023/24 season includes debuts with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico, I Musici de Montreal, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, New World Symphony and Euskadio Orkestra, as well as a return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has conducted the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony and Barcelona Symphony, among many others. LinaGonzalezGranados.com
Lorena Maza
Director
From: Mexico City, Mexico.
LA Opera: debut.
About: Stage director Lorena Maza has directed more than 50 plays, five operas and five musicals. She has been director of Mexico’s National Theater Company, director of Teatro Helenico and of Teatro UNAM, where she managed three venues and produced 35 plays a year. She has taught acting for more than 20 years at the National University of Mexico as well as at CUT–UNAM. She has been recognized with 11 awards for best direction and best play of the year. She directed the world premiere of El último sueño de Frida y Diego for San Diego Opera and subsequently for San Francisco Opera. She founded and directed the Ocesa theater department of Grupo CIE, producing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, with more than 650,000 spectators. In 2017, she opened her own production company, 19TEATRO, in collaboration with other theater professionals.
Jorge Ballina
Scenic Designer
From: Mexico City, Mexico.
LA Opera: debut.
About: He graduated with a degree in architecture from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and is a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators. His designs have been exhibited at five Prague Quadrennial festivals, winning an honorary mention in 2003. He won the gold medal at the World Stage Design Toronto 2005 exhibition and second place at the 2022 Calgary edition. He has designed more than 120 sets for Mexican productions of theater, musicals and opera, including The Magic Flute, Macbeth, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro (also Zagreb National Theater), Così fan tutte, Fidelio, Rusalka (also Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires), The Tales of Hoffmann, L’amour de Loin, The Rake’s Progress, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Carmen and the Ring cycle. He directed and designed Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice. His designs for Frida y Diego have been seen in San Diego and San Francisco. JorgeBallina.com
Eloise Kazan
Costume Designer
From: Mexico City, Mexico.
LA Opera: debut.
About: An award-winning production, set and costume designer, she has worked internationally on more than 60 projects in theater, opera, dance, interior design and film. Her credits include costume design for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Soldier in Every Son, costume design for The Good Canary directed by John Malkovich for Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City and production design for Deborah Kampmeier’s independent feature film Split. Her opera credits include costume design for Opera de Bellas Artes, Spain’s Festival Mozart Coruña, Universal Forum of Cultures in Monterrey and Croatian National Opera. She won the top prize for costume design at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial and was a member of the International Jury at the Prague Quadrennial 2015. She is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. EloiseKazan.com
Victor Zapatero
Lighting Designer
From: Mexico City, Mexico.
LA Opera: debut.
About: His career as a lighting designer covers opera, theater and dance. His theater credits include Privacy and Macbeth, and he received Mexico’s prestigious Metropolitan Theater Award for Best Lighting Design for his work on the plays Man of La Mancha and Novecento. In 2021, he created an immersive light and sound display The Forest in Mexico City. At the recent World Stage Design congress held in Calgary, Canada, he won first prize for lighting design in recognition of his work on Omphalos by leading choreographer Damien Jalet. His opera credits include coordinating the lighting for Robert Wilson’s production of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and the lighting design for the 2022 world premiere of El último sueño de Diego y Frida at San Diego Opera and its subsequent presentation at San Francisco Opera.
VictorZapatero.com
Jeremy Frank
Chorus Director
From: Glendive, Montana.
LA Opera: He became Chorus Director last year, after working on over 75 productions as associate chorus director and/or assistant conductor. He previously prepared the chorus for the Plácido Domingo 50th Anniversary Concert (2017) and The Clemency of Titus (2019). He is a coach for the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.
About: He has collaborated with major opera houses throughout the United States and has prepared operas and vocal chamber music at the LA Philharmonic. As a pianist, he has partnered with Sondra Radvanovsky, Eric Owens, Brandon Jovanovich, J’nai Bridges, Dolora Zajick, Kate Lindsey and Susan Graham. He helped prepare Seattle Opera’s Ring cycle in 2013. He has been a guest faculty member for young artist programs at Utah Opera and Seattle Opera, and he is a part-time lecturer in vocal arts and opera at the University of Southern California.
JeremyMFrank.com
Ruby Tagle Willingham
Choreographer
From: Mexico City, Mexico.
LA Opera: debut.
About: She is a director of staging and movement and a choreographer, with a degree in contemporary dance from the INBAL School of Music and Dance in Monterrey. Since 1982, she has worked in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Scotland, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, France, England and Germany. She has collaborated on movement, choreography and interpretation with theater directors including Peter Greenaway. Since 1995, she has collaborated in more than 80 dance, theater and opera productions with major companies, institutions and festivals, both in Mexico and internationally, and she has also worked in film. She currently teaches acting and collaborates with the Compañía Nacional de Teatro y Ópera de Bellas Artes as a stage director and choreographer in Mexico City.
