NEWS
Gibson served five years at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff as an Associate Professor and Director of Lyric Theater. Gibson's production of THE MAGIC FLUTE for NAU was awarded first prize in its category in the National Opera Association Opera Production competition, plus a Viola Award presented by the Flagstaff Arts Council - for Excellence in the Performing Arts!
He will return to Fargo-Moorhead Opera to stage THE BARBER OF SEVILLE in 2021, having previously staged HANSEL & GRETEL, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE and DIE FLEDERMAUS for the company. Recently, he made his Opera Tampa debut with THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, his Winter Opera debut with L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI, staged another BARBER for Mobile Opera, and staged COSÌ FAN TUTTE for Varna International in Bulgaria in June of 2019.
Gibson has enjoyed wonderful summers abroad teaching at the Kashudo Opera Studios in Nyland, Sweden and the prestigious AIMS program in Graz, Austria, and was excited to join the staff of IPAI in Kiefersfelden, Germany in the summer of 2019 working alongside many great artists including Kirsten Chavez, Luretta Bybee, and Michael Sturm. He returns to IPAI in the summer of 2021.
Gibson is currently a guest director and acting teacher at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and will stage DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES for the School of Music during the 2020/2021 academic year.
REVIEWS
Albert Herring: Opera Vivente
"Opera Vivente is closing its season this week with a nimble, engaging production of Benjamin Britten's comic gem, Albert Herring, one of the strongest productions I've seen from the company....so many virtues, starting with the remarkably thorough staging by Eric Gibson, artistic director of Light Opera Oklahoma. Gibson has ensured that every character registers multi-dimensionally, and that the whole ensemble interacts deftly.
There's a lot of visual detail, a lot of charm at work...."
– Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
Sweeney Todd: Light Opera Oklahoma
“Gibson’s direction doesn’t shy away from the horror of the story, but he’s careful not to let the events of “Sweeney Todd” descend into pure nihilism ... simple stage set allows for some innovative sequences, such as Bonde’s performance of “Green Finch and Linnet Bird,” in which her movements on the slowly spiraling scaffold resembled those of a caged bird, and the way Sweeney would dispatch of his “customers” (an effect that we won’t describe, but that is chillingly effective.)”
– James D. Watts, Jr., Tulsa World
Named “Best Night At The Theater” 2007: “Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece gets a masterful treatment from director Eric Gibson and a spectacular cast led by Ron Loyd as Sweeney.”
– James D. Watts, Jr., Tulsa World
Candide: Light Opera Oklahoma Festival
"Gibson excelled with his direction of Candide, taking advantage of period costumes and spare scenic designs to offer audiences an elegant, invigorating production of this notoriously tricky operetta."
– Christopher Weimer, The Sondheim Review
"Never have wars and natural disasters, cant and hypocrisy, lechery and corruption, physical violence and philosophical smackdowns been presented with such a giddy degree of glee."
"LOOK artistic director Eric Gibson staged the action with a light hand, amping up the comedy and letting the philosophy the hard little nuggets of truth about the grand and petty evils that men do fall where they will. He also keeps the action flowing at such a pace and, on occasion, flowing off the stage and out into the audience to make the nearly two-hour show fly by."
– James D. Watts, Jr., Tulsa World
"The show, an operetta based on Voltaire’s work by the same name, set to music by Leonard Bernstein, satirizes warfare, religion and hypocrisy. All that, played out by a precisely adept company and orchestra, made for one of the best shows of the year."
– Holly Wall, Urban Tulsa
Dido & Aeneas: Baylor Opera Theatre
With its mix of music and theater, opera serves as one of the most collaborative of the performing arts and Baylor Opera Theater's current, glittering production of Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" serves as Example A. The production shows smart design, rich costuming, clever framing, a dash of humor and solid music, particularly the work of a versatile chorus.
Director Eric Gibson staged the Purcell opera as an entertainment within a party thrown by the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell. Gibson, director of Light Opera oklahoma in Tulsa, proves adept in staging movement and dancing onstage, plus rounding out the opera's striking visual sense.
– Carl Hoover, The Waco Tribune
The Light in the Piazza: Light Opera Oklahoma
"The bad news? Only two performances remain for The Light in the Piazza, a production that is the capstone to the strongest and most rewarding season this company has presented in years."
"Eric Gibson's direction is typically assured; the ensemble scenes are full and active without ever seeming cluttered, the intimate scenes are lovingly crafted."
– James Watts, The Tulsa World
