Marc Verzatt

Stage Director Marc Verzatt maintains an active career directing opera, operetta and musical theater throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Verzatt began as an assistant stage director for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was soon appointed as acting coach and stage director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's young artist program, Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. There he staged, Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan Tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. For the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he directed a concert-version of Massenet's Le Cid with Placido Domingo and was the Assistant Director and Movement Coordinator for their Ring cycle. He was also the Co-Artistic Director and director of the Young Artists Program of the Lake George Opera Festival where, in addition, he staged productions of Otello, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, and Ariadne auf Naxos.

Engagements for the 2003-2004 season included very successful productions of Romeo et Juliette at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Nabucco with Opera Carolina, and The Mikado for Arizona Opera. He also directed a double bill of Angelica/Schicchi as well as Gounod's Le Médecin Malgré Lui for Yale University. Engagements for the 2004-2005 season included a return to Atlanta Opera to direct Carmen, Hansel and Gretel for Palm Beach Opera, Chérubin with New Jersey Opera Theater, a return to Yale University for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Katya Kabanova, and a debut with the Teatro Colon for Elisabetta Regina D'Inghilterra. Engagements for 2005-2006  included a return to Arizona Opera for L’Italiana in Algeri and a return to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for Lucia di Lammermoor. He returned to the Cincinnati Opera Festival to open their 2006 season with Tosca starring Aprile Millo.

He made his professional directing debut at Opera Columbus with The Tales of Hoffmann, and was asked to return to stage their productions of Rigoletto, Anna Bolena, and Nabucco. Recent directing engagements for Mr. Verzatt have included The Merry Widow and Tosca for Arizona Opera, Sweeney Todd for Toledo Opera, Salome for Atlanta Opera, and Il Trovatore for Boheme Opera. Additional previous engagements as a director have included Susannah with Samuel Ramey for Houston Grand Opera, Falstaff with Sherrill Milnes for Baltimore Opera, I Puritani for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Florida Grand Opera, Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci for Florentine Opera, Beatrice and Benedict for the Chicago Opera Theater, La Bohème and Tosca for Austin Lyric Opera, Samson et Dalila and Falstaff for Atlanta Opera, Don Pasquale and Così fan Tutte with Fort Worth Opera, Samson et Dalila and The Magic Flute for Toledo Opera, Much Ado About Nothing for the Austin Shakespeare Festival, Carmen and La Traviata for National Grand Opera, Carmen for the Opera Company of North Carolina, La Bohème and Rigoletto for Ocean State Lyric Opera, Don Giovanni and Don Pasquale for Opera Idaho, and Rigoletto for Mississippi Opera. He has also worked frequently with New Jersey's Boheme Opera, directing productions of Rigoletto, Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, and Il Trovatore.

In Europe, directing engagements have included Bastien und Bastienne with the Gürzenich Oper Cologne and La Serva Padrona with Sinfonia Stuttgart. In addition, Mr. Verzatt became staff assistant director to the new opera house in Aachen, Germany where he directed Der Graf von Luxemburg, and also spent a year as Resident Director for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express in Bochum, Germany. He was assistant to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle on his production of Die Zauberflöte for the Salzburg Festival.

He has been part of the Yale University faculty as Lecturer in Opera for the past four years, where he is currently teaching acting in the Master Degree program as well as directing an opera scenes workshop. He has worked as a guest professor for acting and movement with Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts and has staged with them, Dido and Aeneas, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Abduction from the Seraglio. As Visiting Professor in Opera at Notre Dame University, he coached acting and performance techniques as well as staged performances of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, Handel's Xerxes, and The Magic Flute.

Mr. Verzatt studied drama at Rutgers University and ballet under scholarship with New Jersey's Garden State Ballet, and subsequently made his professional debut as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera. After several seasons as a soloist with the MET Ballet, he left to continue his education in production as a stage manager with the Cincinnati Opera.

He received Classical Singer Magazine’s award for “Stage Director of the Year” in May, 2006.