Boheme Creatives' Bios
José Luis Moscovich, is the conductor for
La bohème. He has been General Director of West Bay Opera since 2006. For the preceding decade he was music director and conductor of the San Francisco Camerata, the only professional orchestra in the US devoted exclusively to the music of Latin American composers. He was also principal guest conductor of the ARTEA Orchestra and the Bay Area Concerto Ensemble. He has also appeared with the Marin Chamber Orchestra, the UCSF Orchestra, the Nova Vista Orchestra, and a number of other ensembles. Recently, he has also conducted prodctions at Opera Santa Barbara and Opera Idaho. He has conducted West Bay Opera’s productions of
Carmen, Fidelio, Norma, Salome, Il trittico, Despertar al sueño, Le nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly,Yevgeny Onegin, Faust, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Il trovatore, Die Zauberflöte, L'elisir d'amore, Tosca, Otello, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Samson et Dalila, Dido and Aeneas, La vida breve, Turandot, Der Freischütz, Orfeo ed Euridice, Der fliegende Holländer, Cavalleria rusticana, and Pagliacci.He has also conducted at the Teatro El Círculo opera house in Rosario, Argentina; taught master classes in opera performance in Beijing, China and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and lectured for the Wagner Society of Northern California. He was assistant conductor of the San Francisco Choral Society. He wrote the libretto and conducted the premiere of Corpus Evita, an opera by Carlos Franzetti, later conducting the recording of that work for Amapola Records, nominated for a GRAMMY in 2005. His other recording with the Camerata is a CD of Latin American orchestral music, for Klavier Records. He was trained as a clarinetist and conductor in his native Argentina, where he studied at the National Conservatory in Rosario. Selected by the American Symphony Orchestra League, he also trained under Lorin Maazel, and Maurice Abravanel.
Igor Vieira is the Stage Director for La bohème. Mr. Vieira, a baritone, started his singing career at age 17 as Dancaïre in Carmen. He has sung the title roles in Don Giovanni
and Rigoletto, and appeared also as Pelleas, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ford in Falstaff, Tonio in Pagliacci, Germont in La traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and he most recently sang the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, marking his debut at the Teatro Solís in Montevideo, Uruguay. Mr. Vieira as sung 96 different operatic roles with such companies as San Francisco Opera; Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sacramento Opera; Williamsburg Opera; Opera Santa Barbara; Fresno Grand Opera; Teatro Barakaldo, Spain; and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, to name a few; and he has appeared at the Opera Festivals of Manaus, Brazil; Mendocino; Festival del Sole, and Bratislava, Slovakia. As a concert and oratorio artist, he has performed with the National Symphonies of Colombia (Orff’s Carmina Burana), Brazil (Carmina Burana, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) and Uruguay (Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem), as well as the Prague Philharmonic (Dvorak’s Requiem) and the Orchestre de Provence in France (Faure’s Requiem). Mr. Vieira's stage director credits include Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
(Tacoma Opera,) Verdi’s Il trovatore
(West Bay Opera,) Rossini’s La cenerentola
(Pocket Opera), Bellini's Norma
and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro
(West Bay Opera), among others.New Paragraph
Michael Palumbo,
makes his debut with West Bay Opera as the set and lighting designer for La bohème. He has designed extensively in the SF Bay Area including La bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at Opera San Jose; The Marriage of Figaro
and The Barber of Seville at Sacramento Opera; Time Stands Still, Distracted and Theophilus North for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley; The Immigrant for San Jose Repertory Theatre; Marjorie Prime for Marin Theatre Company; the premieres of Rust and Pleasure & Pain for Magic Theatre, Gidion’s Knott for Aurora Theatre Company, and Sweeney Todd for San Jose Stage Company; the premiere of Beardo
for Shotgun Players; The Aliens at San Francisco Playhouse; How to Succeed in Business for Bay Area Musicals; Guys & Dolls for Berkeley Playhouse; Peter and the Stacatcher at Hillbarn Theatre; and Elizabeth Rex for Pacific Repertory Theatre. His producing company, Carollo & Palumbo LLC, has credits including bare: the musical Off-Broadway and the Broadway produciton of A Time to Kill. MFA: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Abra Berman,
is the costume designer for La bohème. She has been designing costumes for over twenty-five years. She was designer for West Bay Opera's productions of Dido and Aeneas, La vida breve, Samson et Dalila, Aida, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Die Zauberflöte, Faust, Rigoletto, Le nozze di Figaro, Salome, Norma and Carmen. Other collaborations includes SF Playhouse, Marin Shakespeare Company, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Berkeley Playhouse, Berkeley Opera, Brava Theatre, Pocket Opera, Lamplighters Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Alameda Civic Light Opera, Palo Alto Players, The De Young Museum, The Museum of Performance and Design, Hillbarn Theatre, Arclight Theatre, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Ballet Califia, Cinnabar Theatre, and Sonoma County Repertory Theatre, among others. Abra has an MFA from UCLA in theatrical costume design.
Frédéric O. Boulay, is Projection Designer for La bohème. He made his debut with West Bay Opera as Projection Designer for Les contes d’Hoffmann, and since then has designed projections for Tosca, L’elixir d'amore, Die Zauberflöte, Il trovatore, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Faust, Rigoletto, Yevgeny Onegin, Madama Butterfly, Le nozze di Figaro, Il trittico,, Salome, Norma, Fidelio and Carmen. Frédéric's design work is at the intersection of art and technology, and he loves pushing the boundaries of what can be done on stage using new technology. His upcoming engagements as Projection Designer include A Golden Celebration of Dance at the Chicago Auditorium; a new production of Alice in Wonderland with Mark Foehringer Dance Project|SF in San Francisco and the Youth America Grand Prix at the David Koch Theatre in New York City. A native of France, he is a member of United Scenic Artists and holds both a Masters of Arts in Theatre Design & Production and an Executive MBA. Frédéric is of the Owner and Founder of Oaktown Productions and the Managing Director for Rooster Productions. None of this would be possible without the love and support of his amazing wife Magda and his two young boys Étienne & Théodore.
Lisa Cross
is Makeup and Wig Designer for La bohème. She made her debut as makeup and wig designer with the company in Madama Butterfly, and has since designed Yevgeny Onegin, Le nozze di Figaro, Il trittico, Salome, Norma, Fidelio and Carmen. She has also designed recently for Festival Opera. Ms. Cross is an accomplished actress, dancer, singer, choreographer, director and teacher. Her professional performing arts career spans over three decades and includes film, video, commercials, stage, dance, voice, and magic. She designs costumes, make up, and hair for stage, film and opera. She recently directed, designed and choreographed Zombeo and Juliet, The Musical, which was produced at Burlingame High School. She has successfully blended her performance experience with a 30-year career in teaching drama, dance, movement and art at Odyssey Middle School.
Giselle Lee is Sound Designer for La bohème. Giselle grew up in Mountain View and earned a BA in Technical Theatre from Cal State Long Beach. Following a string of SoCal gigs at various convention centers, theatres, and clubs on the Sunset Strip, Giselle returned to the SF Bay. After doing work with Western Ballet she spent time at West Bay Opera under the mentorship of Tod Nixon and JF Revon and went on to secure a position at Beach Blanket Babylon. She stepped in as Sound Designer last season and has designed West Bay Opera's productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Il trittico, Salome, Norma, Fidelio
and Carmen.
Shirley Benson, is Properties Designer for La bohème . Both she and her props were last seen in Lyrics production of Trial by Jury in June, 2017. She will also be working on Oklahoma with Lyric theatre this fall. Other credits with West Bay Opera include Salome, Il trittico, Le nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, Yevgeny Onegin, Rigoletto, Faust, Il trovatore, Die Zauberflöte, L’elisir d’amore, Tosca, Otello, Lucia di Lammermoor, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Aida, Don Giovanni, Samson et Dalila, Dido and Aeneas, La Vida Breve and Turandot . She has sung in the chorus with Mission City Opera, where she has also been properties manager for seven shows, including The Marriage of Figar o in 2009 and La bohème in 2010. She designed properties for many of Lyric Theatre of San Jose’s productions, including Camelot, Carousel, Kismet, Brigadoon , a Bollywood-style Sorcerer, and The Grand Duke . She also designed Utopia Limited for Lyric Theatre. Ms. Benson has been singing and designing and building props for various community theaters and Bahá'í choirs since the age of 12.
Our productions are made possible, in part, by the generous support of our key partners:
