American stage director.
Frank Corsaro
(December 22, 1924,
New York City, New York
? November 11, 2017,
Suwanee, Georgia
[1]
) was one of America's foremost stage directors of
opera
and theatre. His
Broadway
productions include
The Night of the Iguana
(1961).
Career
[
edit
]
A graduate of
De Witt Clinton High School
,
[2]
he made his operatic directing debut at the
New York City Opera
in 1958 with a staging of
Carlisle Floyd
's
Susannah
. It was this production that the company took to the
Brussels World's Fair
that year, starring
Phyllis Curtin
,
Norman Treigle
and
Richard Cassilly
.
[
citation needed
]
He became one of the City Opera's leading directors, creating such important productions as Prokofiev's
The Fiery Angel
, Verdi's
La traviata
(with
Patricia Brooks
and
Placido Domingo
), Puccini's
Madama Butterfly
, Robert Ward's
The Crucible
(featuring
Chester Ludgin
), Gounod's
Faust
(with
Beverly Sills
and Treigle), Borodin's
Prince Igor
, Jana?ek's
The Makropulos Affair
(with
Maralin Niska
), Lee Hoiby's
Summer and Smoke
, Cherubini's
Medee
(in the Italian version), Korngold's
Die tote Stadt
(with
Carol Neblett
), Jana?ek's
The Cunning Little Vixen
(in designs by
Maurice Sendak
) and Bizet's
Carmen
.
[1]
Corsaro directed the world premieres of two of Floyd's later operas,
Of Mice and Men
(1970) and
Flower and Hawk
(1972). He made his
Metropolitan Opera
debut in 1984, with Handel's
Rinaldo
, starring
Marilyn Horne
and
Samuel Ramey
.
[
citation needed
]
Corsaro wrote several
librettos
for operas, including
Heloise and Abelard
by
Stephen Paulus
[3]
and
Frau Margot
by
Thomas Pasatieri
[4]
whose opera,
The Seagull
, he directed at its premiere.
As an actor, Corsaro appeared as Hector Jonas opposite
Joanne Woodward
in the 1968 film
Rachel, Rachel
, directed by her husband,
Paul Newman
. In 1988, he became the head of the
Actors Studio
.
[5]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Robert Viagas:
Night of the Iguana Director Frank Corsaro Is Dead at 92
- ^
Henahan, Donal.
"When the stage director takes on the opera; Says Frank Corsaro: 'My productions are supposed to be so sensational and sexual, but what in God's name is the theater all about? Theater is vulgar in the best sense'"
,
The New York Times
, November 12, 1972; accessed September 15, 2009.
"'I attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx for a while and the Immaculata High School on East 33rd Street, but they threw me out after awarding me a prize for oratory. So I went back to DeWitt Clinton.'"
- ^
Johanna Keller (April 21, 2002).
"Love and Lust In Opera? Nothing New. But God?"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
December 24,
2007
.
- ^
Matthew Gurewitsch (May 27, 2007).
"A Keeper of the Flame Who Tried to Snuff It"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
December 24,
2007
.
- ^
Jeremy Gerard (April 8, 1988).
"Frank Corsaro to Head Actors Studio"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
December 24,
2007
.
External links
[
edit
]
Preceded by
|
Artistic Director of the
Actors Studio
1988-1995
|
Succeeded by
|
|
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International
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National
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Other
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