One of Latin America's leading figures in opera, Sergio Vela served as Artistic Manager and General Director at the Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City from 1989 until 1992. From 1992 until 2000 Mr. Vela was General Director of the International Cervantino Festival, the largest multi-media festival of art, music, theatre, dance, film, literature and opera in North America. Mr. Vela served as General Music Director of the National and Autonomous University of Mexico from 2001-2006.  In 2006, President Filippe Calderon appointed Mr. Vela President of The National Council for Culture and the Arts, where he served through 2009.

Mr. Vela made his directoral debut during the 1990 season at the Ópera de Bellas Artes with a new production of Gounod's Faust, featuring an international cast led by conductor John DeMain. In 1993 he directed the Mexican premiere of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, which was produced at both the International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato and at the Ópera de Bellas Artes with tenor Ramón Vargas in the title role. In March of 1994 he returned to the Ópera de Bellas Artes to direct their new production of Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander.  Mr. Vela's productions have been constantly praised by the press and public alike, for their poignancy and penetrating theatricality.

Mr. Vela made his U.S. debut at the Virginia Opera’s premiere of Richard Strauss' masterpiece Salome.  He made his Italian directorial debut with a new production of Turandot at the 1996 Torre del Lago Puccini Festival, and his Spanish debut with a new production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the 2002 Mozart Festival in La Coruña

Among Mr. Vela's recent productions are a new production Enrique Granados’ María del Carmen which he mounted at the Wexford Festival Opera, and the first-ever Mexican performances of Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which debuted in Mexico City with Das Rheingold in 2003 and concluded in April of 2006 with Götterdämmerung.   He made his Sicilian directorial debut in Catania with La sonnambula. He designed and directed Gian Francesco de Majo's Motezuma  for the Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de'Turchini in Naples, which was also performed in Aschaffenburg, Germany.  Mr. Vela travled to Spain and Germany with his production of Julio Estrada's Murmullos del páramo  for the Teatro Español in Madrid and the Theaterhaus in Stuttgart.

In July of 1996 he led an award-winning new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Mexico City.  In the Palacio de Bellas Artes he produced the much-praised Mexican premiere of Mozart’s Idomeneo in July of 1998. In October of 1999, Mr. Vela directed to critical acclaim the world premiere of the definitive version of Carlos Chávez' The Visitors at the Festival Internacional Cervantino and at the Ópera de Bellas Artes. In March of 2000 he directed a new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte for the Ópera de Bellas Artes and the Festival del Centro Histórico of Mexico City.

In 2000 Mr. Vela directed and designed the late Juan Ibáñez', ancient music and poetry show, Siempre es hoy at the Festival Internacional Cervantino. In 2001 he directed the new production of Verdi's Macbeth at the Ópera de Bellas Artes and at the Festival Internacional Cervantino, commemorating the composer's death centennial. Also in 2001, he directed and designed the lighting of Hans Werner Henze's El cimmarón at the International Music and Stage Festival in Mexico City.

Mr. Vela is a scholar who has devoted much time to publishing essays and lecturing on opera, theatre, music and art. On a weekly basis, he has hosted more than 600 international opera broadcasts on the Mexican cultural television network. He is host of the highly regarded weekly radio broadcasts La ópera en el tiempo, found on Opus 94 at www.imer.com.mx.  In 1999 he was also host of weekly television broadcasts on cultural and scientific issues. Since 1988 Mr. Vela has served as Criminal Law, Roman Law and History of Legal Philosophy Professor, at Latin America's leading Free School of Law. In addition to his magna cum laude law degree of 1988, Mr. Vela made his formal music studies in orchestral conducting under Roswitha Heintze (of the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst of Vienna) and with Murry Sidlin at the Aspen School of Music. He also studied composition under Humberto Hernández Medrano.

Mr. Vela's many talents, his vast cultural background and his skill and depth of comprehension of many languages contribute to his startling knowledge and to his innovative artistic perceptions. He has been awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order of Isabel la Católica of the Kingdom of Spain, the Dannebrog Order of the Kingdom of Denmark. and the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

July 2011 Please destroy any previously released version