LG: By carefully and intentionally trying to avoid all those. How did this impact your approach to directing the production? OW: A work this famous has a number of performance clichés and interpretations. Lillian Groag: It’s one of my first and favorite operas, and some of my happiest experiences in the field have taken place at Opera San José. OperaWire: What drew you to direct a new production of “Carmen?” The director spoke to OperaWire about taking on Bizet’s masterwork. 12, 2022, opera audiences in San José will get a chance to check out “Carmen” directed by Groag. She would also director with such companies as the New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, and Boston Lyric Opera, among many others.Īnd now starting on Feb. She entered the opera world in 1993 with a production of “Tosca” at Virginia Opera and subsequent renditions of “La Bohème” and the world premiere of Simón Bolivar,” both with the same company.

where she would eventually make her way to the theater, first as an actor, and then as a director and playwright. Raised in both Argentina and Uruguay, Groag would eventually make her way to the U.S.

She noted that she had a particular affinity for the character of Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida,” though she expressed that the attachment was inexplicable. “By 10 I knew the words of all the big 10 which I wailed around the house to the intense discomfort of family, friends and neighbors,” she told OperaWire in a recent interview. So it’s no surprise that by the time she was but five, she was already attending her first opera and falling in love with the art form. When she was a child, Lillian Groag’s family treated opera as if it were pop music.

Carmen opera san jose