“Desire, obsession and isolation were at the heart
of director Sergio Vela's staging of Virginia Opera's
Salome. In an opera in which no one listens
to anyone else, Vela's thought-provoking staging
spoke to the audience.”
– Jeffrey C. Smith, Opera Monthly
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. He is currently General Music Director of the National and Autonomous University of Mexico.
Mr. Vela made his directoral début 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 Holländer. Mr. Vela's productions have been constantly praised by the press and public for their penetrating theatricality.
Mr. Vela made his U.S. début at the Virginia Opera’s premiere of Richard Strauss' masterpiece Salome. He made his Italian directoral début with a new production of Turandot at the 1996 Torre del Lago Puccini Festival, and made his Spanish début with a new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the 2002 Mozart Festival in La Coruña.
Among Mr. Vela's most recent productions are a new production Enrique Granados’ Maria del Carmen which he mounted at the 2004 the Wexford Festival Opera, and the annual continuation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in Mexico, which débuted in Mexico City with Das Rheingold in 2003 and ends in April of 2006 with Götterdämmerung. He made his directorial début in Catania, Sicily with La sonnambula.
In July of 1996 he led an award-winning new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Mexico City. At 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 ancient music and poetry show, Siempre es Hoy at the Festival Internacional Cervantino, created by the late Juan Ibañez. In 2001 he directed the new production of Verdi's Macbeth at the Ópera de Belles 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 Cimarrón 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 350 international opera broadcasts on the Mexican cultural television network. During 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 and the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana. For more photographs and biographical information, visit www.SergioVela.com.