Andreas Mitisek to Lead Chicago Opera Theater
On January 1, 2012, Mitisek will become COT's general director designate to begin working on future seasons for both COT and LBO, creating a new model for artistic collaboration between the two companies with modest budgets and similar creative sensibilities.
Mitisek has a reputation as a risk-taker, unafraid to pair Philip Glass and David Lang with Shostakovich and Cherubini. Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar is part of the 2012 season, with an outdoor performance scheduled to take place in downtown Long Beach, against the backdrop of a deserted six story office building. Mitisek's bold artistic moves have paid off at LBO: His vision and leadership has helped the company double its budget ($430K to $1.3M), eliminate a longstanding deficit and raise subscriptions by 500%. Mitisek also transitioned LBO from a festival format to a seasonal format of four productions a year.
"Andreas has done interesting work at Long Beach Opera which mirrors in many respects the character of COT," Dickie says. "Andreas is ideally equipped to take Chicago Opera Theater forward in the challenging circumstances that many performing arts companies face in these difficult times."
Warm and chipper at today's announcement, Mitisek was confident that he'll be able to save costs while increasing artistic standards. "We can make filet mignon out of burger meat," he joked.
Mitisek has a reputation as a risk-taker, unafraid to pair Philip Glass and David Lang with Shostakovich and Cherubini. Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar is part of the 2012 season, with an outdoor performance scheduled to take place in downtown Long Beach, against the backdrop of a deserted six story office building. Mitisek's bold artistic moves have paid off at LBO: His vision and leadership has helped the company double its budget ($430K to $1.3M), eliminate a longstanding deficit and raise subscriptions by 500%. Mitisek also transitioned LBO from a festival format to a seasonal format of four productions a year.
"Andreas has done interesting work at Long Beach Opera which mirrors in many respects the character of COT," Dickie says. "Andreas is ideally equipped to take Chicago Opera Theater forward in the challenging circumstances that many performing arts companies face in these difficult times."
Warm and chipper at today's announcement, Mitisek was confident that he'll be able to save costs while increasing artistic standards. "We can make filet mignon out of burger meat," he joked.