Elkhanah Pulitzer

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Known for her bold, nuanced, and innovative stage direction, Elkhanah Pulitzer is an esteemed director of opera, theater, and other staged works. This fall, she will direct a new production of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra—a project four years in the making—premiering at San Francisco Opera in September 2022.

Ms. Pulitzer explores the intersection between music and theater through innovation and hybridized forms. Recent projects include David Lang’s prisoner of state with the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican; the live tour of Esperanza Spalding’s album 12 Little Spells; and DIORAMA, an art installation at the I.O.U. in San Francisco. She has directed projects at the LA Philharmonic including John Adams’ Nixon and China and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, the latter of which was also staged at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. She has also directed John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary at the San Francisco Symphony, and Lucia di Lammermoor and Judas Maccabaeus at Los Angeles Opera.

She directed Wagner’s Flying Dutchman at San Francisco Opera in 2013 and returned to serve as Artistic Curator of SF Opera Lab, an experimental chamber opera two-year program from 2015-17, where she developed the mission, brand, and programming. She has directed multiple productions at West Edge Opera, among them Wozzeck’s Lulu, Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face, and Luca Francesconi’s Quartett. Past work includes collaborations on next-generation projects with Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and the Canadian Opera Company. Theater directing credits include work with Impact Theater, Cutting Ball, Riverside Theater, and Ensemble Theater Company.

Ms. Pulitzer was honored with the Opera America Success Award for her libretto Dream of the Pacific, an opera composed by Stephen Mager, commissioned and performed by Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She holds an MA from Columbia in Directing. Born in Boston and raised in St. Louis and Marin, Ms. Pulitzer also serves as board vice president of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, which advances experimentation in art curation, installation and live programming.

Photo: Kristen Loken