Dr. Virginia Saya holds a Ph.D. in Musicology, teaches music history, and is founding
director and designer of the Sinatra Opera Workshop, an ensemble endowed by
Frank Sinatra in the mid-1990s for the cultivation and training of LMU
undergraduate vocalists. As an operatic lyric coloratura, she appeared in major
productions in such leading roles as Olympia in
The Tales of Hoffmann
and Susanna in
The Marriage of Figaro. Productions that she has directed and
designed at LMU run the gamut of opera history and include
Gianni Schicchi
and her own 90-minute adaptations of
The Marriage of Figaro,
The Rake's Progress,
Così fan Tutte, and
The Coronation of Poppea. In 2011, she will add the West Coast
premiere of John Cage's
Europera 5
to
the list.
Professor Saya was for ten
years a contributing music critic to the
Cincinnati
Enquirer. She has authored several librettos and is published in
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera;
The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition; The Opera
Quarterly; and
Opera Canada.
[Professor. B.M., Simpson College; M.M. and Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music]