Frank Corsaro

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Frank Corsaro (born December 22, 1924, in New York City) is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana (with Bette Davis, 1961). He made his operatic debut at the New York City Opera in 1958, with a staging of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. It was this production that the company took to the Brussels World's Fair that year, starring Phyllis Curtin, Norman Treigle and Richard Cassilly.

He was to become one of the City Opera's leading directors, creating such important productions as The Fiery Angel (of Prokofiev), La traviata (with Patricia Brooks and Plácido Domingo), Madama Butterfly, The Crucible (featuring Chester Ludgin), Faust (with Beverly Sills and Treigle), Prince Igor (of Borodin), The Makropulos Case (with Maralin Niska), Summer and Smoke (of Lee Hoiby), Médée (in the Italian version), Die tote Stadt (with Carol Neblett), The Cunning Little Vixen (in designs by Maurice Sendak) and Carmen.

Corsaro directed the world premieres of two of Floyd's later operas, Of Mice and Men (1970) and Flower and Hawk (1972). He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984, with Handel's Rinaldo, starring Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Maverick, by Frank Corsaro, The Vanguard Press, Inc, 1978.