Director, Dramatic Workshop for Singers
Lotfi Mansouri, San Francisco Opera's general director from 1988 to 2001 and currently general director emeritus, began his association with the company in 1963, when he staged six productions. He has since staged more than 60 productions at San Francisco Opera, most recently The Tsar's Bride and Der Rosenkavalier during the 2000-2001 season, and The Merry Widow in the 2001-2002 season.
Born in Iran, Mr. Mansouri attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and received U.S. citizenship before serving as resident stage director at Zurich Opera from 1960 to 1966. In 1965 he started working simultaneously at the Geneva Opera, where he became stage director in 1966 and remained until 1976. During this period, he began fulfilling engagements as guest director at various houses throughout Italy and North America, including Chicago, Houston, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas, and both the Metropolitan and New York City Opera companies. In 1976 he was named general director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, where he directed 30 new productions, 12 of them Canadian premieres.
During his tenure at San Francisco Opera, numerous artists made their U.S. operatic debuts, and six productions were taped for telecast and videocassette. Mr. Mansouri's 1979 production of La Gioconda was the company's first to receive a live international telecast. Also during this tenure, the company made its first commercial recordings: Hérodiade, Orphée et Eurydice, Harvey Milk, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Dead Man Walking. Mr. Mansouri established the historic exchange with the Kirov Opera that resulted in productions of War and Peace, Boris Godunov, The Fiery Angel, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Eugene Onegin, and Betrothal in a Monastery.
In 2001 he was honored at a San Francisco Opera gala concert for more than a decade of leadership and 37 years of artistic collaboration. Also a recipient of the prestigious San Francisco Opera Medal, Mr. Mansouri received the Music Academy Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2000 and directed the Academy's 2002 opera production, Albert Herring.