Zambello to Head Glimmerglass Opera

• MARCH 11, 2010

Zambello to Head Glimmerglass Opera

By KATE TAYLOR

Glimmerglass Opera, the 35-year-old summer opera festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., has named Francesca Zambello as its general and artistic manager, replacing Michael MacLeod. Ms. Zambello, who has worked at many of the world’s major opera houses and also directed Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” on Broadway, will likely give the small company, which presents four operas a season, a higher profile.

“I have been after her for, oh, most of the decade,” Sherwin Goldman, president of Glimmerglass’s board, said in a phone interview. He said that Ms. Zambello will assume her post in September and will announce soon after a “major overhaul” of the company. Asked what that might entail, Mr. Goldman said, “I think some exciting breakthroughs of new ways to consider how to produce a festival.” He added: “Everything’s on the table.”

MacLeod, who has been Glimmerglass’s general and artistic director since 2006, did not give a reason for his departure when it was announced in February.

Ms. Zambello, who has described herself in interviews as a populist and an evangelist for opera, has reportedly been on the short-list in the past for top jobs at the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera. She was also said to have been considered to run New York City Opera when its director, Paul Kellogg retired in 2007. (City Opera ultimately chose Gerard Mortier, a flamboyant European impresario, who later parted ways with the company before fully assuming the post.)

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