Frank Corsaro (born December 22, 1924, in New York City) is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana (with Bette Davis, 1961).Corsaro attended De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx, and had attended Immaculata High School in Manhattan before returning to DeWitt Clinton.Corsaro made his operatic directing debut at the New York City Opera in 1958, with a staging of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. It was this production that the company took to the Brussels World's Fair that year, starring Phyllis Curtin, Norman Treigle and Richard Cassilly. He was to become one of the City Opera's leading directors, creating such important productions as The Fiery Angel (by Prokofiev), La traviata (with Patricia Brooks and Plácido Domingo), Madama Butterfly, The Crucible (featuring Chester Ludgin), Faust (with Beverly Sills and Treigle), Prince Igor (by Borodin), The Makropulos Affair (with Maralin Niska), Summer and Smoke (by Lee Hoiby), Médée (in the Italian version), Die tote Stadt (with Carol Neblett), The Cunning Little Vixen (in designs by Maurice Sendak), Alban Berg's Lulu (with Ronald Chase), and Carmen.Corsaro directed the world premieres of two of Floyd's later operas, Of Mice and Men (1970) and Flower and Hawk (1972). He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984, with Handel's Rinaldo, starring Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey.Corsaro has written several libretti for operas. These include Heloise and Abelard by Stephen Paulus and Frau Margot by Thomas Pasatieri whose opera, The Seagull, he directed at its premiere.As an actor, Corsaro appeared in the 1968 film, Rachel, Rachel (as Hector Jonas), opposite Joanne Woodward, directed by her husband, Paul Newman. In 1988, he became the head of the Actors Studio.Corsaro has a son, Andrew, and two grandsons, Matthew and Mason.
$200,000
