JAY LESENGER
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Stage Director
Artistic/General Director - Chautauqua Opera
With a career spanning more than 25 years and 200 productions, Jay
Lesenger’s stagings have been seen on stages across the country and
recently Europe as well. Jay’s directing skills are reflected in a wide
repertory of operas, operettas and musicals that includes WERTHER,
MACBETH, LOHENGRIN, IL TRITTICO, THE BARTERED BRIDE, THE TURN OF THE
SCREW, DIE FLEDERMAUS, THE CORONATION OF POPPEA and the five Mozart
comedies. He made his New York City Opera debut with a new staging of
ANNA BOLENA followed by THE MAGIC FLUTE and STREET SCENE. Debuts quickly
ensued in San Diego, Pittsburgh and Hawaii. Jay is the Artistic/General
Director of the Chautauqua Opera and in 2008 became the Director of the
Opera Department at Northwestern University.
Most recent engagements include
CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, COSI FAM TUTTE AND STREET SCENE at Chautauqua, LA
FINTA GIARDINIERA at Juilliard and STREET SCENE at Manhattan School of
Music.
Recent engagements include Salome and the world premiere of
Musgrave’s The Baroness for New Orleans Opera, as well as
Porgy and Bess and Macbeth for Opera Carolina, Luisa Miller
and The Crucible for Opera Boston and La Boheme, Stiffelio,
Faust, Don Giovanni, Butterfly, Crucible and The
Music Man at Chautauqua. His recent
productions of THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE and DIE WALKURE for New Orleans both
garnered “Best Opera Production” awards for their respective seasons. His
critically acclaimed production of ARIADNE AUF NAXOS for the opera
companies of Atlanta, Columbus, Virginia, Milwaukee and Chautauqua was
televised by Wisconsin PBS. In 2000, Jay made his European debut with LA
BOHEME for Opera Nordfjord (Eid, Norway) where he returned for THE
MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. Other engagements include DER ROSENKAVALIER for
Atlanta, Opera Pacific, and Opera Carolina, as well as Krasa’s BRUNDIBAR
for Opera Pacific and Madison Opera.
Jay has been Artistic Director for the Chautauqua Opera since 1995.
Chautauqua has seen his new productions of THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, COSI FAN
TUTTE, FALSTAFF, THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, THE
PIRATES OF PENZANCE, REGINA, SISTER ANGELICA/ GIANNI SCHICCHI, MARY STUART
(Maria Stuarda), MADAM BUTTERFLY, SHE LOVES ME, TWO WIDOWS (Smetana,)
HANSEL & GRETEL, LA RONDINE, ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, STREET SCENE and LA
TRAVIATA as well as this season’s TOSCA, MACBETH and MERRY WIDOW.
A
dedicated Manhattanite, Jay was graduated from Hofstra University and
continued his education in stage direction in the Master's program at
Indiana University. He is a nationally recognized teacher of acting for
singers and for five years was an Associate Professor of Music at the
University of Michigan/Ann Arbor, where he directed the School of Music
Opera Theatre. He is a frequent judge for the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions and other vocal competitions.
JAY LESENGER
REVIEWS
Stage Director for Macbeth:
"Using a front scrim and swirling projections, director Jay Lesenger
created a world of tangible oppression, mortal evil and terrified
superstition. His stage pictures alternately glittered like a black
diamond (the Witches chorus', authentically pagan-looking) and pierced the
heart with their poignant beauty (the breathtaking tableau of suffering
that surrounded Macduff's lament in Act III."
OPERA NEWS
“It’s a rare director who is able to overcome the insipid music Verdi
wrote for the chorus of Witches, but Jay Lesenger pulled off this feat
with wizardly stagecraft that whisked the hags on- and offstage with
amazing swiftness.”
OPERA NEWS
Stage Director for Ariadne auf Naxos:
"Jay Lesenger set the opera in the smashing Art Deco salon of wealthy
London, circa 1925, and his razor-sharp staging was a model of wit and
high spirits."
OPERA NEWS
"Much of the excitement stemmed from Jay Lesenger's brilliantly detailed
direction. He choreographed the entire evening with polished, purposeful
movement, drawing remarkable definition of character from his singers."
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL
"Jay Lesenger moved the action to London in the 1920's and the Art Deco
salon of a British aristocrat."
OPERA NEWS
"In this staging by Jay Lesenger, the characters are clearly delineated.
Imagine a room full with stereotypical personalities of both the opera and
the theatrical worlds and you have the cast of Ariadne."
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
"Jay Lesenger's artful staging helped focus this dichotomy. The witty
Prologue ranged from the antics of the blowzy Zerbinetta and the
exaggerated haughtiness of the strutting Prima Donna to the composer's
sublime embrace of his art."
THE SENTINEL
"Under Jay Lesenger's direction, the subtlety and delicate irony of all
this came through beautifully. The extremes are not overplayed, and the
evening-long drift toward resolution of those extremes is as gradual and
measured as it is inevitable and satisfying."
THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
Stage Director for Cavalleria Rusticana and Il Tabarro:
"Director Jay Lesenger cranked up the temperature and pace for Cavalleria
and allowed Il Tabarro to unfold at a more leisurely pace."
OPERA NEWS
"Director Jay Lesenger cranked up the tension and temperature in
Cavalleria; long before the final murderous outburst, we could taste the
violence in the air. For Tabarro, he set a heavier pace-brooding rather
than bristling, but just as inevitably headed for disaster."
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
"Director Jay Lesenger has refashioned, quite orthodoxly, but with a fresh
eye, these familiar scenarios.Much of the dramatic scheme works and
restores what can be tired rituals to revelations for the eye. As
composers use silence, so Lesenger sometimes chooses the visually static
to balance and contrast the intensity of the musical scores."
ORANGE COUNTY OPERA REVIEW
Stage Director for The Magic Flute:
"Working with a cast of young, largely unknown singers, conductor Georg
Tintner and stage director Jay Lesenger have fashioned a jewel of a show
that brings out the best in just about everyone - Mozart above all. It's
hard to know what to admire first in a Magic Flute that's so well
balanced, brightly humored, directly engaging and musically poised as this
one. It's perfect Mozart; no megastars, but light everywhere. From the
purposeful movement of the characters and chorus to the free-wheeling
stage business of Papageno, director Lesenger could do no wrong."
THE DETROIT NEWS
"Jay Lesenger's newly-devised stage direction went along with these ideas,
and it must be said he made them quite convincing."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
"Lesenger's direction emphasizes the idea that the characters are real
people set in a mythical landscape, rather than fairy tale creatures, and
this is consistent with the deep humanism expressed in the libretto and in
Mozart's glorious score."
THE BERGEN RECORD
Stage Director for Lohengrin:
"Of course, Wagner was the master of the spectacle. But spectacle can. in
the wrong hands, be plunged into confusion and absurdity. Director Jay
Lesenger never let this happen. Lesenger was genius at controlling the
pace of incidents on stage, the accumulation of occurrences, the balance
between active and static moments. The stage never appeared cluttered,
though there were 75 to 100 performers milling around. Last night there
was incredible attention riveted to the stage. Although it cost only
$125,000 to produce, it looks far more expensive. It's full of pageantry,
splendid sets and costumes and it's visually tasteful down to the minutest
detail."
ENTERTAINMENT
Stage Director for Cosi fan tutte:
"Stage director Jay Lesenger has trimmed the recitatives in da Ponte's
libretto to give the story unusual dramatic thrust. The magic of this
production lies in Lesenger's ability to draw an invisible line between
the comic and serious sides of this often-misunderstood work. The laughs
are all there, yet the music itself is treated with uncanny earnestness,
making each aria and ensemble an essay on the problematic relations
between men and women. Lesenger's unique feeling for the depth of this
opera makes this an offering that is intensely passionate throughout;
horseplay - although present in pleasant proportions - seldom interferes
with the concern for the fundamental issues that dominates this
production. "
DAILY CAMERA
"Stage Director Jay Lesenger picks every precious nuance from the piece.
Lesenger's direction is particularly engaging, excising every nickel's
worth of humor from a cast that clearly loves working together. There is a
joy here rare in any theatrical production, and the viewer exits the
theater elated-not from the laughter alone but also from the precision
ensemble effort, the perfection of music, and performance from every
member of the cast."
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Stage Director for Turandot:
"Hawaii Opera Theater is fortunate to have Jay Lesenger, a man of taste
with an eye for balance and symmetry, to direct the massive forces "Turandot"
requires: not only the Opera Theater Chorus but the Hawaii Children's
Opera Chorus, the Kamehameha Alumni Glee Club, and executioner and his
troop of men, several hand maidens, and of course the principals. The
result is a sumptuous feast for the eye, handsome and hugh, with
intelligent blocking almost consistently. The metamorphoses were big-toned
dramatic, thanks to the precise blocking imposed by director Jay Lesenger."
HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN
"Stage Director Jay Lesenger successfully keeps the densely populated
sections
from lapsing into mere crowd control."
THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER
"The essence of this production's success must rest with its director, Jay
Lesenger, a member of the New York City Opera staging staff for more than
six years. Lesenger's art is in his pacing of incidents; the speeding up
and slowing down of events, the balance of active and static moments, the
sensitivity of the right number of seconds between segments.
Characterizations are clearly drawn, well-differentiated and convincing.
Great sweeps of melody carry one beyond blood and thunder to tragic
Puccini visions of doomed suffering humanity, jealousy, anguish. The
production is a revelation in movement. It's as if the chorus and supers
are trained dancers, movement is so fluid."
THE TRIBUNE
"Jay Lesenger's stage direction was masterful. He has a well developed
feeling for the pageantry of this opera, and the various processions had a
graceful realism. "
THE SAN DIEGO UNION
Stage Director for L'Elisir d'Amore:
"What came as a pleasant surprise was the warmth and naturalness of Jay
Lesenger's staging. There were no moth-eaten sight gags, the principal
characters were lovable and funny, and the choristers moved and acted like
real people."
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
"Stage Director Jay Lesenger keeps the cast moving on the multi-leveled
set, and he places the background chorus all over the stage. There is
always plenty to watch but not so much as to steal from the main action."
THE BRADENTON HERALD
Stage Director for La Traviata:
"The staging by Jay Lesenger was well done. The performer's movements were
natural and meaningful-no energy was wasted, and their intents were always
clear. The scene at Flora's Party in Scene II of Act II was vibrant,
exciting and colorful; probably the best of the entire evening."
GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
"Jay Lesenger, the company's artistic director, staged the opera with
taste, common sense and respect for the score. Lesenger is on the faculty
of the University of Michigan's School of Music, where his stagings often
grace that school's opera theater productions. His affiliation with the
Opera Company of Mid-Michigan would seem to bode well for the company's
future."
DETROIT FREE PRESS
Stage Director for Werther:
"Director Jay Lesenger didn't try for anything innovative,preferring to
play it close to the composer's vest. But in the last act he let high
drama have its due; there was nothing to suggest Victorian repression
here. In fact, he followed the natural curve of the score and libretto
suggest: the first act capitalizing on a tableau of German bourgeoisie;
the second focused on deepening relationships; and the third, a picture of
full-blown tragedy."
HERALD EXAMINER
"Director Jay Lesenger found sensitive keys to the work's melodramatic
mysteries."
OPERA NEWS
Stage Director for Madame Butterfly:
"Director Jay Lesenger has made ingenious use of the opaque panels by
projecting silhouettes on them at dramatic moments, such as the end of Act
I and the scene during the second act in which Butterfly and her child
watch for Pinkerton's return."
NEW YORK TIMES
"Director Jay Lesenger turned back to Puccini's Brescia version of May
1904 as the basis for the festival's intimate visually striking
production. The emphasis here shifts from a tight closeup on the
individual tragedies of Butterfly and Pinkerton to a wide shot that takes
in the clash of the cultures they embody.There is a sharp distinction to
be drawn here-between what Lesenger has done in reviving a nonstandard
version of "Butterfly" and what Peter Sellers, for instance, did in making
Don Giovanni a drug dealer in Spanish Harlem. This is the precise
distinction between a genuinely new look at an old work, a look that
preserves and respects its integrity, and a "revisionist" production that
respects nothing other than the director's most recent flight of fancy."
MUSIC IN NEW JERSEY
"Jay Lesenger's extremely romantic direction of an unusual version of this
opera contributed to a moving experience for the audience. He selected a
version of this opera which was initially performed in 1904. The version
performed by the Opera Festival still presents Pinkerton in a somewhat
arrogant light but adds an aria in the second half of Act II which may
create more sympathy from the audience toward this character. This in
turns serves to add to the drama and tragedy of the story."
TOWN TOPICS-PRINCETON, NJ
Stage Director for The Merry Widow:
"The direction by Jay Lesenger was fluent and artistic to the highest
levels of professionalism and the acting lived up to the directing.:
GANNETT DAILY NEWS
Stage Director for Don Giovanni:
"At least the production has held up better than most revivals here.
Thanks to director Jay Lesenger and lighting designer Dawn Chiang, Henry's
ladies and courtiers took attractive poses in Ming Cho Lee's cleanly
stylized Windsor Castle."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Stage Director for Anna Bolena:
"What emerges after the soloists is the professional staging by Jay
Lesenger (debut) on the pattern developed by Tito Capobianco. Within the
Gothic scenic box of Ming Cho Lee the action is consistently persuasive,
thanks to a few changes of stairs, garden chairs, doorways and Tower of
London chambers."
VARIETY
Stage Director for The Ballad of Baby Doe:
“Director Jay Lesenger staged the opera with an almost cinematic eye,
manipulating the audiences eyes and emotions precisely where he wanted
them for maximum effect. All in all the production was a dramatic hit.”
THE TIMES PICAYUNE
“Jay Lesenger’s direction kept the story moving and created the illusion
of large crowds when needed.”
THE ADVOCATE
2000/2001 SEASON Press Acclaim:
Der Rosenkavalier - Opera Pacific
“And we have to say we were a little shocked by the stage direction of Jay
Lesenger. Where does a mere director, we would like to know, get off
showing so much understanding of the music and then have the gall to
illuminate it” We actually heard new things in Strauss’s score because of
what Lesenger choreographed on stage. Without asking a soul to do anything
unduly busy or histrionic, the singers and actors indicated the moods and
mannerisms heard in the bustling instrumental parts, down to quite subtle
detail.”
Orange County Register
“Jay Lesenger’s intelligently worked out staging brought characters into
delicately intimate groupings.”
Opera News
Falstaff - Chautauqua Opera
“Jay Lesenger’s deft direction is matched by excellent singing and
conducting, which may even surpass the fine performance seven years ago
when this attractive production was unveiled at Chautauqua.”
The Chautauquan Daily
“Director Jay Lesenger gave the production a wonderful feeling of forward
motion and clear unrolling of the plot. The characters are believable and
the production delightful.”
The Post Journal (Jamestown)
“Jay Lesenger has come to grips with all the potential pitfalls quite
successfully in staging this tale of the corpulent Falstaff’s attempted
seduction of two married women and his royal comeuppance. Verdi’s score is
chock full of rhythmic and lyrical devices that underscore the stage
direction, and Lesenger doesn’t miss a trick - a couple of quick head
ticks to accompany two rhythmic accents in the orchestra, a sweeping slow,
gestural bow to the tune of a mocking glissando.”
The Buffalo News
La Traviata - Chautauqua Opera
“ DIRECTOR LENDS THE RIGHT TOUCH. Director Jay Lesenger’s measured but
dramatic approach to the staging of La Traviata was forecast in the way he
used the entire four-minute expanse of the lovely opening orchestral
prelude for a very slow, gradual illumination of the darkened stage....Lesenger
is able to maintain a curve of dramatic intensity.”
The Buffalo News
“Director Jay Lesenger has staged a production with outstanding production
values, which is musically valid and yet which is dramatically thrilling,
as well.”
The Post Journal (Jamestown)
“The stage direction was colorful and appropriate and things moved along
with dramatic cogency.”
The Chautauquan Daily
Hansel and Gretel - Chautauqua Opera
“It is a bright, intelligent staging of the opera, and works very well on
that level alone, but it’s packed with little inside jokes which will warm
the hearts of frequent Chautauqua visitors without straying over the line
into smugness.”
The Post Journal (Jamestown)
JAY
LESENGER
STAGE DIRECTOR
Operatic Productions
THE ATLANTA OPERA
Turandot - 1994
Macbeth - 1993
Don Giovanni - 1993
L'Elisir d'Amore - 1991
Tosca - 1991
Die Fledermaus - 1990
The Marriage of Figaro - 1990
Ariadne auf Naxos - 1988
The Merry Widow - 1988
Cosi Fan Tutte - 1987
Abduction from the Seraglio - 1986
CENTRAL CITY OPERA
Cosi Fan Tutte - 1990
FLORENTINE OPERA (Milwaukee)
Ariadne auf Naxos - 1990
TV Broadcast - Wisconsin PBS
HAWAII OPERA THEATER
Don Giovanni - 1989
Turandot - 1988
HOLLYBUSH FESTIVAL (Glassboro)
L'Italiana in Algeri - 1990
Madama Butterfly (Brescia) - 1994
LaTraviata - 1993
Il Trovatore - 1992
OPERA COLUMBUS (Ohio)
Ariadne auf Naxos - 1994
OPERA FESTIVAL OF NEW JERSEY
(Princeton)
Madama Butterfly (Brescia)- 1992
OPERA GRAND RAPIDS
The Pirates of Penzance - 1993
La Traviata - 1992
Hansel and Gretel - 1991
Don Pasquale - 1991
OPERA LANSING
Tosca - 1988
La Traviata - 1987
OPERA PACIFIC (Costa Mesa)
Samson st Dalilah - 1992
Cavalleria Rusticana /Pagliacci - 1991
OPERA SOUTHWEST
Tosca - 1989
PITTSBURGH OPERA
The Magic Flute - 1990, 1983
Don Giovanni - 1984
PORTLAND OPERA
La Boheme - 1994
La Traviata - 1993
SAN DIEGO OPERA
Anna Bolena - 1984
Lohengrin - 1983
Turandot - 1982
Werther - 1980
SARASOTA OPERA
Cavalleria/Il Tabarro - 1987
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KNOXVILLE OPERA COMPANY
Die Fledermaus - 1993
Les Contes d'Hoffmann - 1992
The Barber of Seville - 1991
Don Giovanni - 1991
The Magic Flute - 1989
MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE
Samson et Dalilah - 1992
The Magic Flute - 1991
ORLANDO OPERA
La Boheme - 1990
NEW YORK CITY OPERA
Anna Bolena - 1989,
Fall 1980 (Opening Night)
The Magic Flute - 1982, 1984
Street Scene - 1990
(O'Brian production)
Don Giovanni - Fall 1981
(revised production)
Rigoletto (Corsaro production)
Love for Three Oranges
(Capobianco production)
OPERA CAROLINA (Charlotte)
L'Elisir d'Amore - 1986
TIBBITS SUMMER THEATRE
(Michigan)
The Pirates of Penzance - 1983
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE
Marriage of Figaro - 1989, 1983
Angelica/Schicchi - 1988
The Coronation of Poppea - 1988
La Rondine - 1987
The Turn of the Screw - 1987
The Magic Flute - 1986
The Merry Widow - 1986
Cosi Fan Tutte - 1985
Falstaff - 1985
Hansel and Gretel - 1984
VIRGINIA OPERA
Ariadne auf Naxos - 1990
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