- Paul Curran (director)
Paul Curran (born 1964) is a Scottish
opera director. He is artistic consultant toCentral City Opera ofDenver, Colorado , [ [http://www.centralcityopera.org/media/Lucretia_Paul_Curran.pdf CCO interview] ] and in January 2009 he will become General Manager (Artistic Director) of the opera company of theNorwegian National Opera and Ballet . [ [http://www.ballade.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2007081612424010409246 Music Information Centre Norway article] ]Early life
Curran was born in
Maryhill ,Glasgow . At the age of five, he was rehoused with his family toEasterhouse . He playedclarinet in the Glasgow Schools Orchestra, and saw his first opera (Scottish Opera 's production of "Wozzeck ") in 1980.The following year, his parents discovered that he was
gay and threw him out. [ [http://www.paulcurran.info/paul/gay_city_times.pdf Interview in Gay City Times] ] He went to London, where he trained as aballet dancer at theLondon Studio Centre and theCentral School of Ballet before studying withSulamith Messerer . He worked for a time as an usher atEnglish National Opera during the period when Lord Harewood,Mark Elder andDavid Pountney formed the artistic management of the company.Curran spent two years at the ballet school of the
Finnish National Opera and then three years as a professional dancer withScottish Ballet and inGermany . A hip injury terminated his ballet career, and he worked as an interpreter and stage manager before, at the age of twenty-seven, entering theNational Institute of Dramatic Art inSydney to study directing.Career in opera
After graduating, Curran worked for two years as an assistant to
Baz Luhrmann on his production ofBenjamin Britten 's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which visited theEdinburgh International Festival in 1994. As well as taking over responsibility for reviving this production, he assisted on other productions and worked as an interpreter. In the latter capacity, he encounteredValery Gergiev when the Kirov Opera visited Edinburgh in 1995, and was engaged to restage "Prince Igor " for a gala performance in theRoyal Albert Hall . In the same year, he made his debut as an independent freelance opera director with an open-air "Magic Flute" for Bloomsbury Opera.Curran's subsequent opera productions have included:
*"
Ariadne auf Naxos ",La Fenice ,Venice , 2002
*"Billy Budd,Santa Fe Opera , 2008
*"La bohème ", Santa Fe, 2007
*"La Cenerentola ",Teatro di San Carlo ,Naples
*"Daphne", Venice, 2005
*"Eva" (Josef Bohuslav Foerster ),Wexford Festival Opera , 2004
*"La finta giardiniera ",Garsington Opera , 2003
*"Die Frau ohne Schatten ",Lyric Opera of Chicago , 2007
*"I gioielli della Madonna ",University College Opera , 2000
*"Hamlet", designed byVivienne Westwood , for the Clerkenwell Music Series
*"Königskinder ", Naples
*"Kullervo" (Aulis Sallinen ), University College Opera, 2001 (British premiere)
*"Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk",Canadian Opera Company ,Toronto , 2007
*"I Lombardi ",Florence
*"Lucia di Lammermoor ", Halle, 2006
*"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (conducted bySteuart Bedford and designed by Curran), Naples, 2000
*"Mirandolina " (Bohuslav Martinů ), Wexford, 2002
*"Otello ",Trieste
*"Otello",Welsh National Opera , 2008
*"Peter Grimes ", Trieste
*"Peter Grimes", Santa Fe, withAnthony Dean Griffey andChristine Brewer , 2005
*"Schwanda the Bagpiper ",Augsburg , 2007
*"The Rape of Lucretia ",Central City Opera ,Denver , 2008
*"The Tales of Hoffmann ", Central City Opera, 2004
*"Tannhäuser",La Scala ,Milan , 2005
*"Tosca ",Mariinsky Theatre ,St Petersburg , 2007
*"Tosca", Toronto, 2007
*"Il trovatore ", Teatro Communale,Bologna Curran has also directed the musicals "
Man of La Mancha " and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum " for theCovent Garden Festival Forthcoming productions include "Lulu" for Chicago, "Il trovatore" for
Bilbao , "I puritani " in Bologna and "Peter Grimes" in Oslo and atWashington National Opera .ources
*
* Wexford Festival Opera, programme books for 2002 and 2004References
External links
* [http://www.paulcurran.info/ Personal website, accessed 27 August 2008]
* [http://operabase.com/listart.cgi?name=Paul+Curran&loose=E Paul Curran at Operabase]
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