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Sweeney Todd Bios SWEENEY TODD PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHY RICK FISHER, Lighting Designer Rick Fisher (Lighting Designer) is an American lighting designer. Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Fisher has spent most of his career in Great Britain where he has served as the Chairman of the British Association of Lighting Designers. He won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Billy Elliot: The Musical on Broadway, and he received the 2008 Helpmann Award for the Australian production of Billy Elliot. His Broadway credits also include Matthew Bourneʼs Swan Lake, Via Dolorosa, Some Americans Abroad, An Inspector Calls (Tony, Drama Desk awards) and Serious Money. Recent opera productions include A Heart of Darkness, Tsarina's Slippers, Wozzeck (Covent Garden); Radamisto and Turandot (English National Opera);Salome (Japan); Peter Grimes (Washington, Oslo, Santa Fe); Betrothal in a Monastery (Glyndebourne, Valencia); Madama Butterfly, Albert Herring, The Last Savage, Wozzeck, Billy Budd, Radamisto, La Bohème, Daphne, Tea and Madame Mao (Santa Fe); The Fiery Angel and Turandot (Bolshoi); A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream (La Fenice); Gloriana and La Bohème (Opera North); and The Little Prince (Houston, New York, San Francisco). Other awards include two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA Education Materials SWEENEY TODD SWEENEY TODD PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHY JAMES LOWE, Conductor James Lowe (Conductor) Making his San Francisco Opera debut in 2015, James Lowe conducts Sweeney Todd, which he recently led at Houston Grand Opera. Other recent career highlights include Oklahoma! with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Catanʼs Florencia en el Amazonas and Floydʼs Of Mice and Men for Utah Opera; the world-premiere productions of Portmanʼs The Little Prince and Heggieʼs The End of the Affair at Houston Grand Opera, and Carmen, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail for that company; and Adamoʼs Little Women at Lyric Opera Cleveland. Lowe received a Grammy nomination as music director and conductor of Anything Goes, which received the 2011 Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical.” His other work as a music director and conductor on Broadway includes a new production of Les Misérables as well as Gypsy starring Patti Lupone. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA Education Materials SWEENEY TODD SWEENEY TODD PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHY LORENA RANDI, Choreographer Lorena Randi (Choreographer) worked extensively as a dancer before establishing herself as a choreographer. After classical ballet training, she graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in contemporary dance and choreography. In her formative years she danced with the Michael Clark Company (1998-2006), with Mark Morris, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Aletta Collins, Arthur Pita and Charles Linehan, as well as in many productions for theatre, opera, performance art, fashion and film. Her recent theatrical work includes the choreography for Into the Woods (2014), Sunday in the Park with George (2013) and Sweeney Todd (2011), all directed by Lee Blakeley at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, and for Candide (2013) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2012) directed by Sam Brown for Opéra National de Lorraine.In 2009-10 she researched and developed a show with the artist, Martin Creed, Work no:1020 which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Sadlerʼs Wells, London and the Museum of Modern Art, Chicago (2010-2012). Lorena began by choreographing music videos and collaborative ʻshortsʼ for Fashion and the Visual Arts. She then moved into choreography within the dance world, with two graduation pieces for London Contemporary Dance School (2007 and 2009). Working in a variety of genres, she collaborated in 2008 with photographer Nick Knight and Maison Margiela on a film for ʻshowstudioʼ. Lorena has also worked with the singer, Will Young, choreographing his live performances (TV and concerts) and his latest music video, and choreographed commercials for Addidas and EDF energy in 2012. Lorena often performs commissioned solo shows and ʻimprovised installationsʼ, most recently for ʻInternational Womenʼs Dayʼ at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Future Productions include: The Queen of Spades for English National Opera. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA Education Materials SWEENEY TODD SWEENEY TODD PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHY IAN ROBERTSON, Chorus Director Ian Robertson has been chorus director and conductor with San Francisco Opera since 1987, having prepared more than 300 productions for the Company. He was awarded the Olivier Messiaen Foundation Prize in 2003 for his artistic contribution to the preparation of the Companyʼs North American premiere of Saint François dʼAssise. Robertson made his San Francisco Opera conducting debut with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and has since led performances of Falstaff, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Carlo, Turandot, Il Trovatore, and La Bohème. He has led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in many concerts, including the Companyʼs recent Stern Grove appearance, and he has conducted Così fan tutte and La Périchole for San Francisco Opera Center and frequently led Merola Opera Programʼs Grand Finale concerts. Other North American opera credits include productions with Sarasota Opera, Edmonton Opera, and Philadelphiaʼs Curtis Opera Theatre. Before joining San Francisco Opera, Robertson was head of music and chorus director of Scottish Opera, where he led numerous productions, including Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Pearl Fishers, The Secret of Susanna, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The Scotland native trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the University of Glasgow; he studied conducting under Sir Alexander Gibson. Robertson is currently the artistic director of the San Francisco Festival Chorale, which performed this summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the San Francisco Boys Chorus. A 2009 trip with the San Francisco Boys Chorus took him to the inauguration of the President of the United States, and this summer he led performances with the Boys Chorus in St. Petersburg, Russia and Copenhagen. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA Education Materials SWEENEY TODD SWEENEY TODD COMPOSER BIOGRAPHY STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Composer/Lyricist Stephen Sondheim (Composer and Lyricist), born March 22, 1930, is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. At the age of 10, he became friends with Jamie Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. Hammerstein became Sondheimʼs mentor, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theatre. Sondheim graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where he began a lifetime of award winning, taking down the renowned Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, following which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. Sondheim's creativity came into play soon after departing from college when he wrote lyrics for such highly skilled composers as Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story) and Jule Styne (Gypsy) within the two year span of 1957 to 1959. Soon thereafter, in 1962, came one of Sondheim's most notable successes, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, in which he created both the music and lyrics. Two years later, a virtually unending series of successful musicals featuring both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, began their collective run extending well into the 1990s. Beginning in 1964 with Anyone Can Whistle, the list includes Company (1970), Follies (1971, revised in London, 1987), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994) and Road Show (2008). Sondheim was also the lyricist for Do I Hear a Waltz (1965 with Richard Rodgers) and wrote new lyrics for Candide (1974 with Leonard Bernstein). Broadway reviews featuring his songs include Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, Youʼre Gonna Love Tomorrow and Putting it Together. In 1999, his first professional musical, Saturday Night (1954) finally had its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre. Sondheim also composed scores for the movies Stavisky and Reds and wrote songs for The Birdcage (1996) and Dick Tracy (1990), one of which, "Sooner or Later" won the Academy Award in 1990 for Best Song. For television, he wrote songs for Evening Primrose, co- authored the film, The Last of Sheila and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer, Invitation to a March and Twigs. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes was published in 2010, a book authored by Sondheim containing lyrics, both published and unpublished, from his first musical Saturday Night (1954) to Merrily We Roll Along (1981). The companion book of lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany, was published in 2011. Sondheim is the recipient of five Tony Awards (Best Score for a Musical) for Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies and Company. All these shows also won New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James
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