Sunday, November 15, 2009

My name is Frank Zamacona and I have decided to create this blog to let everyone know what I do and create an ongoing dialog on directing. Right now, I have been directing operas for the last two and half years for the San Francisco Opera.  In 2007, the SF Opera hired me to direct Rigoletto. I knew very little about opera and had only stage managed one opera  for television during my career.  I had just been working in LA on some reality tv shows and finished working on a Grateful Dead project for Public Television.  A headhunter called and asked me if I was interested and so I was interviewed by a representative of the opera and they asked me to watch their first simulcast Madame Butterfly at the SF opera.   A few weeks later they called me and asked me to direct their second simulcast - Rigoletto and with a lot of sweat and tears, I struggled through the score with my associate director, Scott Singer and the rest of the crew.  I had six cameras and my audience was 5,000 people in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza.  My coverage was pretty good.  I memorized most of the opera and the cast included the number one Rigoletto in the world.  It was truly a night to remember.  

Now I have directed over 22 operas, some for theatrical distribution and others for what the San Francisco opera calls "Opera vision."  This is for the 700 folks in the balcony of the SF Opera.  When house goes to half, the two  screens come down and the balcony gets to see the close-ups of the singers.  Though I direct each opera for a larger screen there are plenty of close-ups as each opera has at least 800 to 1000 scripted shots.

I will be back with  a report on my final opera of this fall season - Otello.  The cast is great and I will talk about some of the challenges directing this opera.