Virginia Opera welcomes returning stage director/choreographer Keturah Stickann to help illuminate the dynamic opening 2016-2017 season double bill productions of The Seven Deadly Sins & Pagliacci.
Nearly a decade ago Virginia Opera Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Adam Turner and Ms. Stickann worked together at Florida Grand Opera on a production of Samson et Dalila. Now they reunite to lead a production together.
Stickann’s extensive background as a classically trained dancer and sought-after movement and acting coach for young singers and actors will serve the productions well. Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins highlights two facets of one personality portrayed through a singer and a dancer to depict the main character’s psychological and physical struggles.
Stickann comes to Virginia Opera this fall after a busy summer at the Vermont Opera Project, stage directing Orpheus and Euridice by American composer, Ricky Ian Gordon who composed the Virginia Opera world premiere of Rappahannock County in 2011, co-commissioned with the Virginia Arts Festival. Orpheus and Euridice travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. for performances on September 10 & 11. Her earlier summer projects included Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and La Traviata at Chautauqua Opera.
Her career boasts Emmy Awards and PBS feature broadcasts on Great Performances. Virginia audiences will recall Stickann’s haunting choreography in Virginia Opera’s 2014-2015 critically acclaimed La Traviata, directed by Lillian Groag. Other directing and choreographic credits include Don Quichotte (San Diego Opera), Don Giovanni (Janiec Opera Company, Virginia Opera), Rigoletto (Opera Memphis, San Diego Opera, Dallas Opera), Manon (Knoxville Opera), Don Pasquale (Opera in the Heights), Madama Butterfly (Opera Santa Barbara), L’Enfant et les sortilèges & Bon Appetit (Emerald City Opera), The Pearl Fishers (Sarasota Opera), Peter Grimes (San Diego Opera), Orfeo (Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera), and Hansel and Gretel (Portland Opera). She is also known for her work as choreographer and movement director for the world premieres of Moby-Dick (2013) in Dallas, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, at Houston Grand Opera, and Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera.
Stickann’s disciplined training as a professional dancer has given her insightful vision as an innovative young director of opera, dance, theater and film. Her return to Virginia Opera for the opening of the 2016-2017 season is highly anticipated.
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