OPERA BIO
Rod Gomez, stage director, is quickly making a name for himself as a uniquely-gifted and versatile stage director, who courageously spans the gamut of operatic repertoire in a myriad of styles and periods – successfully directing throughout the East Coast, across the West Coast and beyond. Most recently, Mr. Gomez directed two plays at the prestigious Hofstra University, Barefoot in the Park and This Bud of Love (an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet). Also recently, he directed the American Premiere of Juana for Opera dell’Arte, which was named the number 8 opera to see this past summer by WQXR’s article, “Around the Country in 25 Operas”. As a result of this outstanding director’s successful debut with the New Camerata Opera directing El Barbero de Sevilla, he was named Best Director Award 2021 by Latin Ace Awards. Opera Wire’s article, 10 Must See Operas for the Fall Season 2019 had also identified “El Barbero de Sevilla, a rarely-performed zarzuela by Gerónimo Giménez and Manuel Nieto, will be presented in NYC – as set to feature a chamber orchestra arrangement by Music Director Pablo Zinger and as directed by award-winning director, Rod Gomez (National Opera Association Prize, San Francisco Conservatory, Bronx Opera).”
Mr. Gomez has enjoyed re-engagements with every organization he has directed for including Opera Roanoke, Bronx Opera, Garden State Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn, Chelsea Opera, New Jersey Concert Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, Pocket Opera NY and CA, One World Symphony, Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute, New York’s Winter Garden, as well as Queens College, Bard College Opera Academy of California, Holy Names College and many others. Equally at home with contemporary and premiere works as with traditional classical operas, Mr. Gomez’s repertoire includes such eclectic productions as The Consul, Rape of Lucretia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring, Turn of the Screw, Peter Grimes, Street Scene, Mathis der Maler, King Arthur, Abu Hassan, The Fairy Queen, Candide, West Side Story, The Ballad of Baby Doe, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Die Königskinder, Il Matrimonio Segreto, and the American premiere of Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot as well as Abduction from the Seraglio, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Clemenza di Tito, I Capuletti ed i Montecchi, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Alcina, La Cenerentola, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algieri, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Falstaff, Don Pasquale, L’Elisir d’Amore, I Pagliacci, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Carmen, La Fille du Regiment, Romeo et Juliette, Faust, Lakme, Samson et Dalila, Manon, Werther, Les Contes D’Hoffmann and Die Fledermaus, among others.
In 2020, Mr. Gomez directed a magnificent production of Don Giovanni for Bronx Opera. This was predominantly on the heels of his pre-COVID enthusiastically-received, highly-effective production of the company’s The Consul, for which he also conceived and collaborated extensively on the set design. Also recently, he directed the rarely-performed The House of Bernardo Alba by Garcia Lorca for Hofstra University, where he will return in 2020 to direct the equally-rare Summer and Smoke by Williams. Of further note, Mr. Gomez served as Co-Director/Stage Director of the Opera Studio at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. His production of The Rape of Lucretia was awarded 3rd Place (Division IV) in the National Opera Association’s 2015 Production Competition. In 2013-2014, he served as Resident Stage Director for Opera Roanoke in Virginia, staging Die Zauberflöte and Giulio Cesare in Egitto, having directed a memorable production of Carmen for the company in 2012.
Mr. Gomez has served as Faculty and Associate Faculty Member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Opera Academy of California, Holy Names College and Summer Music West International where he directed various opera, operetta and musical theater productions. For ten years, he was on the faculty of Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI) where he directed such productions as Turn of the Screw, La Clemenza di Tito, Dido and Aeneas and Suor Angelica. 2015 marked Mr. Gomez’s debut with Chicago Summer Opera, directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream and with Bard College as Stage Director of Opera Workshop, where he was guest stage director for two years. He has further served as Artistic Advisor and Resident Stage Director for New York’s One World Symphony and directed numerous productions for the company including Le Nozze di Figaro, Orfeo ed Euridice, and Peter Grimes among others. In addition to numerous New York area productions, he has directed such operas as Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto and Martha for San Francisco’s Pocket Opera and at California State University, Northridge.
A resident of New York City, Rod Gomez holds a Bachelor of Music degree from California State University, Northridge and a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
RESUME
ENGAGEMENTS
| Juana (American Premiere) | Opera Dell’Arte (NYC) | 2022 |
| Barefoot in the Park | Hofstra University, Dept. of Drama and Dance | 2022 |
| This Bud of Love | Hofstra University, Dept. of Drama and Dance | 2022 |
| Don Giovanni | Bronx Opera | 2021 |
| ENGAGEMENTS | |
| El Barbero de Sevilla | New Camerata Opera (NYC) |
| Summer and Smoke (Williams) | Hofstra University, Dept. of Drama and Dance |
| The Consul | Bronx Opera |
| The House of Bernarda Alba (Garcia Lorca) | Hofstra University, Dept. of Drama and Dance |
| Abduction from the Seraglio | Bronx Opera |
| Abu Hassan | Garden State Opera |
| Falstaff | Bronx Opera |
| Cosi fan Tutte | Aaron Copland School of Music/Queens College |
| La Cenerentola | Bronx Opera |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Chicago Summer Opera |
| The Rape of Lucretia | Aaron Copland School of Music/Queens College |
| Albert Herring | Bronx Opera |
| La Traviata | Bronx Opera |
| Giulio Cesare in Egitto | Opera Roanoke |
| Die Zauberflöte | Opera Roanoke |
| The Turn of the Screw | BASOTI (Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute) |
| Carmen | Opera Roanoke |
| Giulio Cesare in Egitto | BASOTI |
| Cosi fan Tutte | Pocket Opera NY |
| La Clemenza di Tito | BASOTI |
| The Fairy Queen | Big Apple Baroque (Co-Director) |
| Suor Angelica | BASOTI |
| Die Königskinder | dell-Arte Opera Ensemble |
| Dido and Aeneas | BASOTI |
| Peter Grimes | One World Symphony |
| West Side Story | New Jersey Concert Opera |
| Madame Butterfly | Pocket Opera (San Francisco, CA) |
| Giulio Cesare in Egitto | Opera Company of Brooklyn |
| I Pagliacci | Chelsea Opera (NYC) |
| Rigoletto | Pocket Opera |
| Path of Miracles (J. Talbot, Amer. Premiere) | Winter Garden (NYC) |
| Suor Angelica | One World Symphony |
| Carmen | One World Symphony |
| Die Zauberflöte | BASOTI |
| Martha | Pocket Opera |
| Le Nozze di Figaro | One World Symphony |
| Orfeo ed Euridice | One World Symphony |
| La Clemenza di Tito | One World Symphony |
| Law Offices (Beeman) | La Honda (CA) Music and Arts Foundation |
| Mathis der Maler | Garden State Opera |
| OTHER EXPERIENCE | ||
| Albert Herring (Stage Manager; David Ostwald, Director) | BASOTI | |
| La Boheme (Assistant Director; Willene Gunn, Director) | San Francisco Conservatory of Music | |
| Acting: David Ostwald (Method); | Richard Salassi (Royal Shakespeare Co.) | |
| Dance Training: Ballroom 2 years; Ballet 1 year; | Jazz 1 year; Modern 1 year; Folk (Filipino) 4 years | |
| Fencing/Stage combat 1 year equivalent; | Martial arts (tae kwon do, judo, kung fu) | |
| Competitive (organized) Basketball 10 years | ||
| EDUCATION | ||
| San Francisco Conservatory of Music, M.M. | Graduate Assistantship in Stage Direction | |
| California State University, Northridge, B.M. |
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
August 29, 2019 (El Barbero de Sevilla / New Camerata Opera)
“10 Must See Operas for the fall Season 2019”
“El Barbero de Sevilla, a rarely-performed zarzuela by Geronimo Gimenez and Manuel Nieto, will be presented in NYC – as set to feature a chamber orchestra arrangement by Music Director Pablo Zinger and as directed by award-winning director, Rod Gomez (National Opera Association Prize/San Francisco Conservatory/Bronx Opera).”
Francisco Salazar, Opera Wire
January, 2019 (The Consul / Bronx Opera)
“Bronx Opera Offers a Menotti ‘Consul’ for Our Time”
To start its 52nd season, the Bronx Opera Company offered a revival of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s wrenching Cold War-era melodrama “the Consul” (1950), looking at frustration, life, and death under the thumb of a heartless, controlling totalitarian government. In the “Consul,” shadowy leaders and their louche, bullying hench people hunt you down, make a fugitive of you, and leave you bleeding; blithely invade your home, search you, and rifle through your belongings; separate families and cause your neighbors to vanish, and director Rod Gomez immediately established the work’s chilling, forbidding, police state atmosphere.
Bruce-Michael Gelbert, QonStage
January 13, 2019 (The Consul / Bronx Opera)
“MENOTTI’S RELEVANCE”
Bronx Opera has been delighting New York audiences for over 50 years. We have enjoyed Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium and decided to take a chance on The Consul, and we are happy we did so…Here, Director Rod Gomez chose to set the work in the 1980’s. It could have been today. The direction was excellent and the piece worked well as theater.
Meche Kroop, Voce di Meche
May 6, 2017 (Falstaff / Bronx Opera)
Director Rod Gomez kept the action moving…with an enjoyable production of Verdi’s Falstaff.
Joanne Sydney Lessner, Opera News
January 18, 2015 (Albert Herring / Bronx Opera)
“The Bronx Opera has mounted an excellent production…the performances are earnest and truthful, filled with specificity. Bravo to the Bronx Opera Company…for bringing to effervescent life the story of Albert Herring!”
Navida Stein, StageBuddy
January 17, 2015 (Albert Herring / Bronx Opera)
“Bronx Opera’s Albert Herring made a modest but pleasing late entry in the celebration of 2013’s Britten bicentennial (sic)… For the Bronx-based group, Rod Gomez directed a straightforward, fond but never too arch account of the piece… a successful collaboration.”
David Shengold, Opera News
January 11, 2015 (Albert Herring / Bronx Opera)
“The opera was an excellent choice for Bronx Opera. The weather was bitterly cold and perhaps the best compliment we can pay them is that the evening was well worth the two-hour round trip. The singers were excellently cast… the acting could not have been better…Professionalism of the highest degree was noted in the fluid direction by Rod Gomez…The production we saw last night was in no way less impressive [than the Santa Fe Opera’s].”
Meche Kroop, Voce di Meche
March 25, 2014 (Giulio Cesare in Egitto / Opera Roanoke)
“The many moods of Handel’s Julius Caesar by Opera Roanoke were on display Friday night….This Baroque opera seria is a challenge because of its length, its difficult vocal writing, its convoluted plot, and its requirement of elaborate visual effects. On all these counts, the company delivered a winning rendition, sparking an appreciative standing ovation at the end of the evening.”
Timothy Gaylard, Professor of Music, Washington and Lee University,
Special Contributing writer to the Roanoke Times
April 29, 2012 (Carmen / Opera Roanoke):
“A sold out audience showered applause Friday evening on Opera Roanoke’s thoroughly enjoyable performance of George Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ ….comes through in solid style.”
Michael Saffle, The Roanoke Times
July 17, 2011 “BASOTI presents Mozart’s final opera” (La Clemenza di Tito / San Francisco Conservatory of Music):
Tito is not a particularly popular opera. However, for the BASOTI production Stage Director Rod Gomez made the bold decision to transplant the setting from Rome 79AD to contemporary Washington. This take on the unfolding of the plot progressed at a well-paced clip….which comfortably reinforced Gomez’ dramatic pace. All the performers in this cast were firmly established in their roles’ respective characterizations.
Stephen Smoliar, SF Examiner
December 25, 2010 “A very good year in review”:
July: Giacomo Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” performed by the students of the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI) under the stage direction of Rod Gomez. One might have expected things to slow down in July, but this was a month when too many good things were happening. However, while I am far from Puccini’s greatest fan, this was a production that mined every detail of the scenario’s psychological complexity with harrowing results. Indeed, Gomez’ achievement was all the more notable in the context of the highly effective staging by James Robinson that the San Francisco Opera presented the preceding fall. The BASOTI schedule offered this production only three times, each by a separate student cast; but as I reported at the time it was definitely a “must see” event for the summer.
Stephen Smoliar, SF Examiner
December 22, 2010 “Rare Humperdinck Opera a Treat”
(Die Konigskinder, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Gerald Lynch Theater, New York City):
The stripped down staging by Rod Gomez (no live geese but very cute hand puppets instead) allowed the action to flow clearly through the three acts without requiring any delays for set changes.
Mike Silverman, AP/ABC News
July 30, 2010 “A stunning end of season”:
“… Last night’s program of seventeen opera and operetta scenes served as a “graduation ceremony” for the eighteenth season of (BASOTI)….Two of the most compelling stagings were duets. The first was the “Presentation of the Rose” scene from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.…witnessing it executed by performers who, themselves, are on the threshold to such maturity escalated the opera to a higher level of understanding; and director Rod Gomez deserves much credit as the enabler of this experience….[from the second act of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida]….Again the director was Rod Gomez, who seems to have a special skill in dealing with such crucial situations… this is a scene that involves a complex web of moods and those moods were skillfully realized… both worked excellently with Gomez in establishing the complexities of their respective characters.
Stephen Smoliar, SF Examiner
July 22, 2010 “Worlds without desire”(Suor Angelica, Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute [BASOTI]):
“….The result is a narrative that abounds with psychological complexity. It is an ambitious project for any opera company and a major undertaking in a pedagogical setting, such as BASOTI. In this latter the opera has received all the theatrical attention it merits from Stage Director Rod Gomez…The only cause for regret is that these theatrical and musical insights will only be available for two more performances at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music…this is very much a “must see” event for this summer.
Stephen Smoliar, SF Examiner
“Critics’ Pick 2010” Time Out NY (Cosi fan Tutte) Pocket Opera NY
July 19, 2007: “Pocket Opera’s ‘Madame Butterfly’ is marvelous” (Napa Valley Opera House):
“…larger than life results. The company’s heart-rending performance proved that opera can be at once high-brow and accessible, technically rigorous and intelligible…. zeroed in on the opera’s most touching attribute: its story….[Butterfly] evoked the complexity of a woman torn between two worlds. She was both butterfly and something more powerful, undergoing a complicated transformation onstage – from heart-breakingly demure to bravely heroic and, finally, to nothing short of tragic.”
Jillian Jones, Napa Valley Register
June 9, 2006 (I Pagliacci, Chelsea Opera):
“The production, directed by Rod Gomez, was endearingly homey…The eager chorus looked rather poignant….The palpable involvement of the entire cast was winning.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times