David Bartholomew |
 |
David Bartholomew, Stage Director A native Texan, David Bartholomew studied for his bachelor’s degree in music at North Texas State University and while there won piano competitions and awards throughout the state, including the Abilene Symphony Concerto Competition, the Tuesday Music Club in San Antonio, and at NTSU. From Texas he went to Massachusetts where he received a master’s degree in piano performance from Boston’s New England Conservatory and concertised extensively in the New England area in both solo recital and chamber music. While on the piano faculty of NEC’s summer school at Castle Hill, the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts, his interests turned to opera stage direction when he observed the rehearsals of guest faculty member Sarah Caldwell. He returned to Boston to work further in this new area, and following two additional years of graduate study in opera production, and was awarded the prestigious Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation grant for a full year of study in Europe. The Beebe grant allowed him further language study in Munich and travel time to see both performances and rehearsals throughout Germany and Austria. Upon his return to the states, he accepted a position as chairman of opera studies at the Boston Conservatory. He also pursued his professional work with productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at Harvard University as well as Hansel and Gretel for San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater in 1972 and again in 1973. In 1973 Mr. Bartholomew was invited to the New England Conservatory to direct The Rake’s Progress under the baton of NEC president Gunther Schuller, noted composer, conductor and author. The following fall, he was named chairman of that school’s opera training program. For eight years, Mr. Bartholomew prepared NEC singers for careers in opera through performance experience in repertoire ranging from Mozart’s The Magic Flute to Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and including the premiere of Medea by Rockefeller Competition winner Ray Luke, The Balcony by Robert di Domenico and Paradiso Choruses by Donald Martino as well as semi-staged performances of Berg’s Wozzeck and Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf. In 1980 he directed a production of Lee Hoiby’s A Month in the Country, the first production of the newly created joint Opera Program of the Boston and New England Conservatories under the leadership of John Moriarty. It was also during this period that he directed three works, Così fan tutte for the Affiliate Artists Opera Company, La Clemenza di Tito and Werther for the young Boston Lyric Opera and spent two summers at Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia. While at Wolf Trap he directed the premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso. He also taught Opera Performance Technique at Boston University from 1982-1984. In recent years, Mr. Bartholomew has headed the opera program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where his gala production of Die Fledermaus opened the new Lied Center for Performing Arts. He has also directed for regional companies including Mobile Opera, Eugene Opera (Oregon), Colorado Music Theater Festival (Boulder), and Western Plains Opera (Minot, North Dakota) and Nevada Opera (Reno, Nevada). He is the principal guest stage director with the Fargo-Moorhead Opera where he has directed twelve operas. After guest appearances with Tacoma Opera directing Bizet’s Carmen and the premiere of The Pied Piper of Hameln by Carol Sams, Mr. Bartholomew moved to Tacoma in 1993, accepting the position of Resident Stage Director with that company. In 1999 he was named Artistic Director, a position he held until May of 2004. During his time at Tacoma Opera he directed some twenty productions. Mr. Bartholomew is currently Artistic Director for Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, NM. |