Phillip Skinner as the Doctor, Bojan Knezevic in the title role and John Duykers as the Captain in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7005
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8777
John Duykers as the Captain, Phillip Skinner as the Doctor, Patricia Green as Marie and Bojan Knezevic in the title role in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7245
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #0276
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #0461
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #0550
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8957
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #2788
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8828
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #2825
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8702
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #2908
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #2948
Bojan Knezevic in the title role and John Duykers as the Captain in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #6708
Erin Neff as Margret, Torlef Borsting as the Seccond Apprentice, J. Raymond Meyers as Andres, Bojan Knezevic in the title role, AJ Glueckert as the Drum Major and John Duykers as the Captain in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7218
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #6157
John Duykers as the Captain in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7008
Bojan Knezevic in the title role and Patricia Green as Marie in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7186
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #5963
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8879
Bojan Knezevic in the title role and Phillip Skinner as the Doctor in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo. # 6810
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #205
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8936
Bojan Knezevic in the title role and J. Raymond Meyers as Andres in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #6757
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #5893
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #8961
Bojan Knezevic in the title role in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #7134
Phillip Skinner as the Doctor and Bojan Knezevic in the title role in Ensemble Parallele's 2010 production of Wozzeck. Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #6840
Ensemble Parallele 2011 production of Orphee.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo, Westside Studio Images. #6254
Brian Staufenbiel has served as Director-in-Residence at Opera Parallèle since 2007, where he has helmed the direction and design of the Opera’s critically acclaimed productions. Utilizing cutting-edge design and adventurous stagecraft, Staufenbiel’s visionary productions have left an indelible impression on the San Francisco Bay Area opera scene.
His work with Opera Parallèle began in February 2007, when he directed the world premiere of the final version of Lou Harrison’s opera Young Caesar. In January of 2010, Staufenbiel directed the West Coast premiere of John Rea’s reorchestration of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Heralded by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “mesmerizing,” and “devastating,” Staufenbiel’s striking direction created “images and scenes that continue to haunt the memory.”
Recently, Staufenbiel’s 2011 production of Philip Glass’ Orphée wove cirque acrobatics, kinetic staging, and floating film projections into a cohesive, surrealist tapestry. Commended as “triumphant” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Opera Parallèle’s Orphée “fused story, music and stagecraft into an engrossing evening of music theater. Also in 2011, Staufenbiel latest production of Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts in collaboration with EP and SFMOMA, received acclaim by the Financial Times saying that, "the imagination can take you anywhere--prevailed."
As a guest director, Staufenbiel has worked on productions both around the Bay Area and internationally. In 2010, Staufenbiel’s direction of Madame Butterfly for Festival Opera in Walnut Creek garnered critical attention for its deft use of shadow puppet theater and intimate staging. In 2009, he collaborated with new-music proponents Composers Inc. to direct the world premiere of Allen Shearer’s The Dawn Makers. Staufenbiel has also directed at the Seoul Contemporary Opera Company, for the Korean premiere of David Jones’ Bardos and the reprise of Chan-Hae Lee’s Back to the Origins.
Staufenbiel is the Director of the opera program at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where his productions have won first prize in the National Opera Association’s Opera Competition.
Staufenbiel is currently designing and stage directing Opera Parallèle’s upcoming production of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, premiering in February 2012 in San Francisco.
Please visit the links below to view videos of these operas:
Orphée (National Award)
Four Saints
Wozzeck
Young Caesar
Festival Pop-Up Opera