Steven Osgood recently completed his seventh season as General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company, conducting performances of Sweeney Todd and La Tragédie de Carmen.
Mr. Osgood makes his anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2023-2024 season, conducting two performances of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking. He also joins the company as Assistant Conductor for The Hours, leads performances of Proving Up at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and workshops Lincoln in the Bardo with Opera Fusion.
Mr. Osgood’s engagements for the 2022-2023 season included a return to The Metropolitan Opera for La traviata, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up at The Juilliard School, Ainadamar at University of Houston, and Street Scene at Rice University. The previous season saw world premiere performances of Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s highly successful Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater, and he joined the Metropolitan Opera for their acclaimed production of Akhnaten.
Most recently, Maestro Osgood has collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera and Opera Memphis for workshops of new operas, continued his collaboration with Washington National Opera for their American Opera Initiative, bringing As One to Merkin Hall, and made his L’Opera de Montreal debut with the first revival of JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek. He also joined the Prototype Festival for the world premiere of Blood Moon, and led both The Flood and The Turn of the Screw at Opera Columbus.
In his role at Chautauqua Opera, Osgood has led productions of Ghosts of Versailles, Thompson’s The Mother of us All, Tosca, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Respighi’s realization, Don Pasquale, Hydrogen Jukebox, Don Giovanni, Candide, As One, and La traviata, amongst others. He also pioneered Opera Invasion, the company’s multi-year audience development initiative. Maestro Osgood regularly shares his talent and expertise with emerging artists outside of his work at Chautauqua, having recently worked with students at Rice University, conducting Taking Up Serpents and Proving Up, and Juilliard Opera for The Turn of the Screw.
In previous seasons Steve conducted the world premieres of Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, JFK at Fort Worth Opera, The Scarlet Ibis, Thumbprint, and Sumeida’s Song for the PROTOTYPE Festival, as well as Missy Mazzoli’s Song From the Uproar with Beth Morrison Projects. He was the 2017 Conductor Mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, conducting the premieres of Adam, Lifeboat, and What Gets Kept. Other notable productions include the critically acclaimed world premiere of Xenakis’s Oresteia at the Miller Theater, Tan Dun’s Marco Polo with De Nederlandse Opera, La traviata and La bohème with Edmonton Opera; The Ballad of Baby Doe, Peter Grimes and Tosca at Chautauqua Opera; Glory Denied, The Rape of Lucretia, Bon Appetit! and This Is the Rill Speaking with Opera Memphis; Three Decembers at Atlanta Opera; Dead Man Walking at Lyric Opera of Kansas City; The Long Walk at Utah Opera; Tosca at Hawaii Opera Theater, Stephen Schwartz’s Seance on a Wet Afternoon and Massenet’s La Navarraise with New York City Opera, Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox at Fort Worth Opera, Conrad Susa’s Transformations and Jonathan Dove’s Flight at Juilliard Opera, Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke and Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at Manhattan School of Music, and John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at both Northwestern University and Manhattan School of Music.
His concert work included appearances with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony featuring Tony Award nominee Louise Pitre. He also conducted workshops of two new operas in development: Herschel Garfein’s Rosenkrantz and Guildentern are Dead, and Conrad Cummings’ The Golden Gate, as well as readings of Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and Anthony Davis’ Revolution of Forms with New York City Opera’s VOX 2010.
