About
Frederic Wake-Walker, the artistic director of Mahogany Opera, is directing Le nozze di Figaro at La Scala, Milan in a production which opens on 26 October 2016. It is the first new production of Mozart's opera at La Scala for 30 years. The production follows in the footsteps of Giorgio Strehler's production which has held sway at La Scala for the last 30 years.
Wake-Walker's recent work has included Mozart's La finta giardiniera at Glyndebourne as well as Hans Krasa's Brundibar (see my review) and HK Gruber's Gloria, a pigtale with Mahogany Opera Group, plus Lost in Thought (music and concept by Rolf Hind), the world's first mindfulness opera.
Wake-Walker's new production of Le nozze di Figaro opens at La Scala on October 26, with Diana Damrau (Countess), Marianne Crebassa (Cherubino), Golda Schultz (Susanna), Markus Werba (Figaro), Carlos Ãlvarez/Simon Keenlyside (Count), conducted by Franz Welser-Most.
Frederic Wake-Walker is Artistic Director of Mahogany Opera Group, runs the Mica Mica project in Berlin and works regularly with children’s opera company Jubilee Opera.
In the 2018/19 season Frederic directs a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos and revives his production of La finta giardiniera at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; he directs a new production of Peter Grimes for Cologne Opera and he stages Handel’s Messiah for concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Robin Ticciati and Ariadne auf Naxos in concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst.
Previous engagements have included La finta giardiniera (Glyndebourne Festival), Gruber’s Gloria – A Pigtale (Royal Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele, Buxton Festival) and Hans Krasa’s Brundibar (Mahogany and Jubilee Opera). Other productions include Britten’s Church Parables (Mahogany Opera in St Petersburg and UK tour), Handel’s Jephtha (Buxton Festival), Stravinsky’s Renard with Vladimir Jurowski (Konzerthaus Berlin), Julian Philips’ The Yellow Sofa (Glyndebourne on Tour) and Birtwistle’s Bow Down (The Opera Group). He has also directed for Scottish Opera, La Monnaie Brussels, Opera North and for the Ópera de Oviedo. With Mahogany Opera he has produced and directed Russian Tales: Stravinsky’s The Fox and Walton’s The Bear, Britten’s Curlew River and Berio’s Laborintus II. With Jubilee Opera he has directed Noye’s Fludde, Let’s Make an Opera, and and Hip Hip Horatio!