About Our Program

Eastman graduates such as distinguished alumni Julia Bullock, Nicole Cabell, Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Kathryn Lewek and Erin Morley have excelled in the operatic profession as a natural extension of their Eastman experience.

Our productions most often have two complete principal casts, are fully designed, performed in the original language, and depending on the venue, use full orchestral accompaniment. Studio productions, scenes programs, and outreach events are also presented to further enhance the variety of performance experience. Eastman Opera Theatre equally utilizes  undergraduate and graduate students in all of our productions. 

Past EOT productions include Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el amazonas, Handel’s Alcina, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sondheim’s Into the Woods, The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Ricky Ian Gordon and Jean-Claude van Itallie, Lear on the 2nd Floor by Anthony Davis and Allan Havis, Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, and Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell. We are committed to working with living composers and librettists.  Recent collaborators have included Adam Guettel, Anthony Davis, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell.  In December 2020 during the pandemic, Eastman Opera Theatre represented a unique collaborative production, Our Voices, featuring the vocal music of six contemporary composers: Anthony Davis, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman, Missy Mazzoli, Ben Moore, and Errollyn Wallen.  These six renowned composers programmed their own music, collaborated with our students and artistic team to create six unique lyric theatrical programs.

Message from the Director

Timothy Long

Timothy Long

Artistic and Music Director of Opera; Associate Professor of Opera

Welcome to Eastman Opera Theatre! This season is the 100th anniversary of EOT, and as an alumnus of Eastman, I am proud to carry on the tradition of excellence begun by my great predecessors. 

Opera is essentially a community. We learn together, we rehearse together, and we arrive on opening night with a sense of purpose in sharing the human experience through musical storytelling. Throughout history, storytelling has been an important tool in uniting communities through allegory. Music elevates this allegory to an even higher emotional level that passes on wisdom from the greatest minds of the past and present. The world now needs this convergence more than ever. This is the purpose of our commitment. 

The EOT team is composed of conductors, coaches, directors and a devoted production staff who all strive to bring the highest caliber of experiences to our students. We bring a standard that prepares our students for lives committed to excellence, responsibility, teamwork, and success. Our hope is to provide a foundation for our students to become musical leaders of the future. 

MELIORA!

Timothy Long
Artistic and Music Director, Eastman Opera Theatre

Opera Faculty

Lindsay Baker

Instructor of Opera

Octavio Cardenas 2022

Assistant Professor of Opera

Patrick Diamond VOVC

Associate Professor of Opera

Timothy Long 2024

Associate Professor of Opera

Wilson Southerland 2022

Assistant Professor of Opera

Department Chair

Robert Swensen

Professor of Voice

Production Staff

Mark Houser

Technical Director

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Costume Designer

Production Stage Manager

Nic Minetor

Lighting Designer

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Department Coordinator

Eastman Opera Theatre Course Offerings:

Required Undergraduate Opera Courses include:

  • Body Awareness
  • Movement and Dance
  • Acting Seminar
  • Text and Music
  •  Lyric Theatre Workshop
  • and an Opera Theatre Practicum.

Required Graduate courses include:

  • Seminar in Lyric Theater Stage Directing
  • Opera Production Project: Stage Management
  • Advanced Opera Seminar: Performance Techniques
  • Fundamentals for the Singer-Actor
  • and Eastman Opera Theatre Practicum.

Productions

  • Orlando – Winter 2013
  • Xerxes – Winter 2014
  • Dialogues of the Carmelites – Spring 2014
  • Albert Herring – Fall 2014
  • La Voix Humaine/The Old Maid & the Thief – Winter 2015
  • Our Town – Spring 2015
  • Hydrogen Jukebox – Fall 2015
  • Suor Angelica/Mese Mariano – Winter 2015
  • Le Nozze di Figaro – Spring 2016
  • The Turn of The Screw – Fall 2016
  • Out of Darkness/Into The Fire – Winter 2017
  • Cendrillon – Spring 2017
  • L’incoronazione di Poppea – Fall 2017
  • Les Enfants Terribles – Winter 2018
  • The Light in the Piazza – Spring 2018
  • The Tibetan Book of the Dead – Fall 2018
  • Orfeo ed Euridice – Winter 2019
  • Don Giovanni – Spring 2019
  • L’enfant et les sortileges – May 2019
  • Sweeney Todd – Spring 2020 (cancelled due to Covid)
  • OUR VOICES: Six Immersive Composer Collaborations – Fall 2020
  • Postcard from Morocco – Winter 2021 (film in post-production)
  • Elizabeth Cree (film) – Spring 2021
  • Here Be Sirens/Proving Up – Fall 2021
  • La Calisto – Winter 2022
  • Into the Woods – Spring 2022
  • Lear on the 2nd Floor – Fall 2022
  • Alcina – Winter 2023
  • Florencia en el Amazonas – Spring 2023

Friends of Eastman Opera

Learn more about this wonderful organization that supports our efforts and gives generous grants and other awards to Eastman students.