“I doubt if there is anyone with more comprehension of Madame Butterfly than Renata Scotto. That wealth of experience paid rich dividends, creating one of the most absorbing and emotional butterflies I have seen in a very long time. Scotto influence was obvious. Together, she and Xini made everything phrase, gesture and expression count.”
– Opera Now

Renata Scotto
Stage Director

The mention of Renata Scotto immediately brings to mind artistry of a personal expression achieved by very few performers in any area of the performing arts. Born in Savona, Italy, Renata Scotto has performed regularly on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Her gifts as a unique singing actress have been acclaimed at the Teatro La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Bolshoi, the Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opera, to name only a few. Her repertoire, comprising more than sixty roles, has an extraordinary range and diversity, including the bel canto operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Meyerbeer, the verismo works of Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea and Giordano, and twelve major Verdi heroines. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Madama Butterfly which she sang in countless productions and recorded twice for CBS.

Ms. Scotto inaugurated the first Live from the MET PBS telecast as Mimi in La Boheme in 1977 and appeared on that series for eight consecutive seasons. She was seen in the title role of La Gioconda in the first live international telecast from the San Francisco Opera, winning an Emmy Award for her portrayal and was the subject of a PBS documentary feature, Renata Scotto – Prima Donna.

A prolific recording artist, Ms. Scotto has recorded for all of the major recording labels including EMI, Decca/London, CBS, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA and Hungaroton. She won the Grand Prix du Disque for her Deutsche Grammophone recording of Rigoletto and both the Palm d’Or and the Italian Critics Award for the CBS recording of Suor Angelica. A sample list of her videos include Il trittico, Otello, L’Elisir d’Amore, Lucia d Lammermoor, Fedora, plus many concerts and recitals, while her notable CDs include Norma, Adriana Lecouvreur, Turandot (Liu), Edgar, and Verdi’s Requiem.

Ms. Scotto continues to add to her activity as stage director after her debut at the Metropolitan in 1986, with Madama Butterfly and then at the Arena di Verona, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Dallas Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Florida Grand Opera in Miami, and the Teatro delle Arts center in Ancona with the same work. In March 1995 she created a new production of La Traviata at the New York City Opera, which was telecast nationally over PBS in the “Live from Lincoln Center” series. For this she won an Emmy Award for Best Live Musical Event. Other notable productions include Il Pirata and La Sonnambula at the Festival Belliniana in Catania, La Sonnambula for Florida Grand and Michigan Opera Theater, Norma for the Finnish National Opera, Adriana Lecouvreur in Santiago, Tosca with Deborah Voigt in her role debut for Florida Grand Opera where she also directed La Traviata and La Sonnambula, Lucia di Lammermoor for the Megaron Theater in Thessaloniki, Turandot in Athens, a new production of Catalani’s La Wally for Bern and Bologna, and La Boheme and Un Ballo in Maschera for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Ms. Scotto’s autobiography More Than a Diva was published by Doubleday.

“I have devoted the greater part of my life to music
 and its interpretation. As a director, I am always driven
 by my love and respect for the score.
 For me, music is a compelling theatrical ‘gesture’ which should never be betrayed by the director. I am passionate about bringing great masterpieces to the stage. I always adopt an intensely visual approach, echoing tradition and at the same time enhancing and complementing the composer’s intentions.” 

Patrizia Di Paolo
Stage Director

Patrizia Di Paolo has spent the past decade directing and producing opera in Italy and abroad. Her productions have been well received by the audience and critics alike and have been referred to as “Wonderfully innovative”, and “Breathtakingly beautiful”.

She is the Artistic Director of Musica a Palazzo in the Palazzo Barbarigo-Minotto in Venice. For Musica a Palazzo she has directed Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and La Traviata, which the NY Times referred to as a “Striking Traviata”. Weltexpress wrote “…the passions and emotions bubbled throughout the theatre”, and Le Figaro referred to the production as “Transfigured by grace”.

In the summer of 2014 Patrizia directed Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for the Trentino Music Festival in the Dolomiti region of northern Italy. Recent engagements include La Traviata at the Festival Fontanalirica and Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale di Treviso, Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte at the Teatro di Vipiteno, Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, Teatro di Silandro, and Teatro di Vipiteno, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Potsdam International Festival in Germany. Her production of La Traviata was presented at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton for the 41st Brighton International Festival in the United Kingdom. The production was warmly praised by audiences and critics and won the Brighton Argus press award for “best production of the Festival”.

Before becoming a stage director Patrizia Di Paolo studied piano at the Conservatorio di Musica
di Cagliari and viola at the Conservatorio di Musica di Firenze.
 She has performed as first viola and soloist in the European Community Chamber orchestra, the Rai Orchestra in Milan, the Toscanini Orchestra in Parma, Bologna City Theatre and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

“Updating the production to Middle Eastern culture and modern day Muslims, director Robin Blauers created dramatic nuances in a contemporary feel that brought remarkable clarity to this ancient story.”
– Rape of Lucretia, The Hartford Courant

Robin Blauers
Stage Director

Robin Blauers has staged opera and musical theater in both the United States and Europe. A frequent guest director for the Trentino Music Festival, Ms. Blauers has directed Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Mark Adamo’sLittle Women, Poulenc’s Dialogues Des Carmelites, and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Ms. Blauers directed the European premier of Little Women at the Stadsschouwburg in Bruges, Belgium with Metropolitan Opera conductor J. David Jackson.

From 2002-2006, Ms. Blauers was a Visiting Professor in Opera at The Hartt School, teaching classes in acting and scene study to both graduate and undergraduate opera students. For the Hartt Opera Theater she directed Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Mark Adamo’s Little Women, Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, and Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. While at The Hartt School Ms. Blauers founded The Company, a children’s music and theater program. During this time she produced and staged over thirty productions, including The Fantasticks, Titanic, West Side Story, Kiss me Kate, Into The Woods, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast, Carousel, Guys and Dolls, Annie, Camelot, Evita, Company, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, and Sweeny Todd. Her productions have been featured on CBS, NPR and on National Public Television.

After graduating with an advanced degree in opera performance, Ms. Blauers spent two years as Resident Soprano with Connecticut Opera. As a singer she was featured in such roles as Blondchen in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Gilda in Rigoletto, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffman and the Queen in Die Zauberflöte. Concert work included countrywide concert tours of Sweden and the United States as winner of the Jenny Lind Competition. She appeared in recital for the Ambassador at the American Embassy in Stockholm, as well as on national radio and television. Ms. Blauers has appeared in numerous musical theater productions including Gigi opposite actor John O’Hurley.

She was educated at Universität Heidelberg, The Hartt School, and Trinity College and studied both acting and directing at HB Studios in New York.