Francesca Zambello

Ms. Zambello has been awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and the Russian Federation's medal for Service to Culture. Other honors for her work include Olivier Awards, Evening Standard Awards and French Grand Prix des Critiques, Japanese Golden Prize, and the Helpmann Award. Works for the current season include "Cyrano de Bergerac"for the Metropolitan Opera with Placido Domingo, "Love of Three Oranges" for Australian Opera and a film for the BBC of the children's opera by Rachel Portman, "The Little Prince". Projects this past season included "Die Walküre" for the Washington Opera, "Tibet Through the Red Box", a new play by David Henry Hwang and "Fiery Angel" for the Bolshoi. Prior seasons have included "West Side Story" for the floating stage in Bregenz and "Aladdin: the Musical" for Disneyland. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Tobias Picker's opera "An American Tragedy" for the Metropolitan Opera, "Porgy and Bess" for the Kennedy Center and a new Disney musical. An American who grew up in Europe, she attended Moscow University and Colgate University. She began her career as an Assistant Director to the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. From 1984-1991, she was the Artistic Director of the Skylight Music Theater.