biography

Hailed “a rising star of stage directing [whose] approach to directing refreshes hope for the future of opera,” Eve Summer is a director, producer, and choreographer. She has been described as having “a gift for translating classic symbolism into familiar detail with just enough flippancy to bring out the fun of the opera without skewing the emotional equation." This season Eve returns to Opera Grand Rapids and debuts at Boston Baroque, Annapolis Opera, and Amelia Island Opera with new productions of L’elisir d’amore, Ariodante, La traviata, and Hansel and Gretel. This summer she joins The Princeton Symphony to direct their summer opera production.

Selected directing credits include Trouble in Tahiti at the Glimmerglass Festival; Cosi fan tutte, Les Mamelles de Tirésias, The Seven Deadly Sins and Albert Herring at Curtis Opera Theatre; Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince at Tulsa Opera; Don Giovanni at Opera Carolina; Rigoletto, Tosca, and Don Giovanni at Opera Columbus; The Barber of Seville at Opera Saratoga; The Tales of Hoffmann and Thomas Albert and Linde Herman’s Lizbeth an opera about alleged murderer Lizzie Borden at Opera Orlando; Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, The Pirates of Penzance, Così fan tutte, and The Mikado at Opera Grand Rapids; John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Volpone at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at UNCSA; The Pearl Fishers at Opera Tampa; Le nozze di Figaro at Knoxville Opera, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Mobile Opera, and Varna International Music Festival, Bluebeard’s Castle at Mid Ohio Opera; Xerxes for Connecticut Early Music Festival, La clemenza di Tito, Mark Adamo’s Little Women and John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Later The Same Evening at the Opera Institute at Boston University; Carmen for MassOpera; Aida and Lucia di Lammermoor at Boheme Opera New Jersey; Suor Angelica in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Così fan tutte for Connecticut Lyric Opera, Les contes d’Hoffmann, La Bohème, The Pearl Fishers, and The Magic Flute at Opera in Williamsburg, The Magic Flute at The Hartt School at University of Hartford, and the world premiere of Larry Bell and Romulus Linney’s opera Holy Ghosts at the Berklee Performance Center.

Eve’s work has been called “eye-poppingly contemporary,” “transfixingly personal,” “a riveting, glorious production from beginning to end,” and “can only be described as brilliant." Critics raved that her production of Xerxes for Connecticut Early Music Festival was “a delight, and a testament to Summer's gift for banishing stodginess from an art form too often seen as fossilized and elitist”. Her Cosi fan tutte for Commonwealth opera was hailed as “amazing…brilliantly staged, beautifully sung and acted, touching, intimate, and hilarious." Her style is naturalistic and modern and rooted in the visceral truthfulness of stage plays where she started her directing career. Her theater productions have included The Merry Wives of Windsor, Extremities, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Woolgatherer, ‘Art,’ Two Gentlemen of Verona, and her own play Neighbors, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Berger.

A former professional ballet dancer and choreographer, Eve’s choreography credits include a commission to choreograph a new ballet, Jeanne’s Fantasy, by composer Mark Warhol for the premiere with Contrapose Dance and Fort Point Theatre Channel, Elektra at Des Moines Metro Opera, Falstaff at Opera Colorado, and Don Giovanni for Boston Opera Collaborative. She recently collaborated with renowned choreographer Karole Armitage on the critically acclaimed American premiere of Philip Glass’ Opera-Ballet The Witches of Venice at Opera Saratoga. Notable assisting engagements also include Francesca Zambello on the world premiere of Ben Moore’s Robin Hood at The Glimmerglass Festival, Julia Pevzner on her widely acclaimed production of Shostakovich’s The Nose at Opera Boston, and Tim Albery on Janáček’s Katya Kabaonova at Boston Lyric Opera. Eve has been on staff as an assistant director and choreographer at The Glimmerglass Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Colorado, Tulsa Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Opera Boston.