Opera Odyssey Notables

Baltic Sea • June 23rd – July 3rd, 2007

F. Paul Driscoll

F. Paul Driscoll, Editor in Chief of OPERA NEWS, began contributing to the magazine in 1990 and joined the editorial staff as managing editor in 1998. He was named editor in chief in 2003. His writing on opera and music has also been published in PLAYBILL, STAGEBILL, CHAMBER MUSIC and LINCOLN CENTER INK, and he has served as a lecturer and interviewer for Radisson Cruises, Cooper Union, CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan, and as part of the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Education Department lecture series. For two seasons, Mr. Driscoll was host of OPERA NY, a weekly program for WNYE-TV, and was executive producer of the 2004 WNYE television special Vignettes: an Evening with Stephanie Blythe and Warren Jones, now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Television & Radio. He has also been interviewed on opera by CCN International, ITV Wales, Sveriges Television in Sweden and NHK-TV in Japan. His book FANTASTIC OPERA, co-authored with John Martinez, was published by Harry N. Abrams in 1997.

Mr. Driscoll is also a stage director, specializing in operetta and musical theater. He has staged six Gilbert and Sullivan operas for Manhattan's Blue Hill Troupe, as well as that group's 1999 concert appearance at Carnegie Hall; served two seasons as artistic director of Scarsdale Summer Music Theatre; and staged twenty-two musicals in his six seasons with College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, MA. He made his Kennedy Center debut directing Working for Washington Chamber Symphony at the Terrace Theater.

Craig Rutenberg

Widely respected as one of today's most distinguished vocal recital pianists, the New Haven native has performed with many of the world's best-known singers such as Olaf Bär, Christine Brewer, Denyce Graves, Thomas Hampson, Ben Heppner, Angelika Kirchschlager, Susanne Mentzer, Dawn Upshaw and Frederica von Stade. Mr. Rutenberg has regularly coached and given master classes at many of the world's opera houses, festivals, and training programs, among them the Chicago Lyric Opera, Washington National Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. Most recently, he has worked as a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music in London and as a guest coach at the Operahögskolan in Stockholm. Mr. Rutenberg has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI/Angel, BMG/RCA, and Koch International. On August 22, 2006, The Metropolitan Opera announced the appointment of Mr. Rutenberg to the position of Director of Music Administration.

In addition to his Met duties this season, Mr. Rutenberg will appear in recital with Christine Brewer, Ben Heppner, Quinn Kelsey, Thomas Hampson, and Susanne Mentzer. As a solo pianist, he is recording the complete piano portraits and études of Virgil Thomson.

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