ABOUT
Eric Gibson is a stage director whose extensive experience directing opera and musical theatre keeps him in great demand.
Regional operatic directing credits include The Barber of Seville and for Mobile Opera & Opera Tampa; Madama Butterfly, The Pirates of Penzance, Hansel and Gretel, and Die Fledermaus with Fargo-Moorhead Opera; HMS Pinafore and The Mikado for Union Avenue Opera; The Magic Flute for Manhattan Opera Studio; Rigoletto for Mid-Atlantic Opera; Heathers: The Musical for Vulcan Lyric in Philadelphia; La Boheme for Boheme Opera, NJ; and L'Italiana in Algeri for Winter Opera in St. Louis.
Gibson was named Director of Opera at Northern Arizona University in 2015 and has staged The Light in the Piazza, The Magic Flute, The Pirates of Penzance, Dido and Aeneas, Il Campanello, Signor Deluso, Kiss me Kate, Trouble in Tahiti, A Grand Night for Singing, and the world premiere of Judith Cloud's Beethoven's Slippers. His production of The Magic Flute recently won 1st Prize in the National Opera Association Opera Competition and a Viola Award from the Flagstaff Arts Council for Best Artistic Performance in Flagstaff for 2018.
In 2002, Gibson took over the artistic directorship of LOOK Musical Theatre (formerly Light Opera Oklahoma), where he directed for over a dozen years, creating original productions of Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, Iolanthe, Sweeney Todd, The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Music Man, Trial by Jury, Candide, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, The Gondoliers, Patience, Ernest in Love, The Light in the Piazza, and Trouble in Tahiti.
Additionally, Gibson has directed original productions of The Mikado for Wichita Grand Opera and Mobile Opera, where he has also staged original productions of The Barber of Seville, The Light in the Piazza and Sweeney Todd. Other career highlights include work on productions for the Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Dallas Opera, and Utah Festival Opera.
In the summer of 2019, travels took him to Varna International to stage Così fan tutte and to Germany to teach acting and direct for IPAI - the International Performing Arts Institute - in Kiefersfelden. Additional summer adventures include teaching at AIMS in Graz (Austria) and the Härnösand Folkhögskola Opera Workshop (Sweden). He will return to Kiefersfelden in 2022 to work with young IPAI singers, and enjoy his second summer in Lubbock, TX with the Matador Opera Workshop staging The Marriage of Figaro, after debuting with a successful Così fan tutte in 2021.
During the 2011-2012 academic year, Gibson served as Director of Opera at Baylor University, staging Dido and Aeneas, Gallantry, and Signor Deluso. Other university credits include original productions of Die Fledermaus and Albert Herring for Bowling Green State University, The Toy Shop and Little Red Riding Hood for The University of Central Oklahoma, and Trial by Jury and The Old Maid and the Thief for The University of Kansas.
Gibson received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Stage Direction from Indiana University.