Brian Staufenbiel, Director/Designer

Brian Staufenbiel is the creative director for Opera Parallèle where he has directed and created the conceptual designs of the company’s productions since it was founded in 2010. Specializing in multimedia, immersive, and interdisciplinary productions, he actively works across a wide range of artistic disciplines collaborating in film and with media designers, choreographers and dancers, circus artists, and designer fabricators. His progressive approach to stagecraft has garnered critical acclaim for many of the company’s productions, including Wozzeck, Orphée, Champion, Dead Man Walking, and The Shining.

Next season includes a world premiere production of Cuomo and Patrick’s Doubt, with Opera Parallèle andPhilip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête, at Cal Performances, with reprisal productions of The Shining at Portland Opera, Utah Opera and Opera Tampa, and Fellow Travelers at Pittsburgh Opera. Last season included world premiere productions of Hanlon and Fleischmann’s Pigeon Keeper, Wallace and Korie’s Harvey Milk Reimagined, and Talbot and Scheer’s Everest at the Planetarium.

Recent works include OP’s west coast premiere of Fellow Travelers by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce, Golijov’s Ainadamar for L’Opera de Montréal and Pacific Opera Victoria.  Other recent works included new productions of Moravec and Campbell’s The Shining and Birds and Balls; the west coast premiere of composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek’s Vinkensport, combined with Balls, a World Premiere by composer Laura Karpman and librettist Gail Collins. He co-directed, with choreographer Yayoi Kambara, IKKAI, a dance installation about Japanese incarceration camps in the United States during World War II, which was performed at Georgia Tech.

Staufenbiel created a new production of Elektra for Minnesota Opera. His 2016 production of Das Rheingold for Minnesota Opera was reprised at Arizona Opera and L’Opéra de Montréal, Calgary opera and opened the 60^th season at Seattle Opera in 2023.  It was named a Star Tribune Classical Pick of the Decade.  Other projects include the premiere of Miguel Zenon’s Golden City Suite with SF JAZZ, and a new production of Gordon Getty’s Usher House and Canterville Ghost for the Center of Contemporary Opera in NY and LA Opera.

Active in film direction, Staufenbiel recently directed and co-produced Flicka a new documentary about the life of Frederica Von Stade with Paper Wings Films and the dance film Out of the Dust which screened at the 2024 SF Dance Film Festival. He has created films for the Sun Valley Music Festival, a film of Dove/Angelis’ Flight for Seattle Opera, an award-winning graphic novel film of Talbot/Scheer’s Everest with Opera Parallèle, and a feature-length film of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye Mr. Chips.

Staufenbiel enjoys an ongoing relationship with composer Philip Glass, having directed many of his operas including In the Penal Colony for Glass’ own festival. The production is currently streaming on a new platform, Philip Glass Days and Night’s Festival Presents, and was named a New York Times Top Ten pick.  He recently finished the Cocteau Trilogy with Opera Parallèle’s acclaimed production of La belle et la bête.

In 2018 Staufenbiel left his position after seventeen years as the director of the opera program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he mounted a wide spectrum of award-winning productions ranging from traditional operas to commissioned works for the program. Staufenbiel holds degrees in Philosophy and Music including a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music and currently resides in San Francisco and Paris.