American director, in Suwanee, Georgia, on November 11, aged 92. Born in New York City on 22 December 1924, Frank Corsaro rose to prominence at New York City Opera with a 1958 production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah later seen at the Brussels World Fair. He became one of NYCO’s most innovative directors, collaborating with the singing actresses Patricia Brooks and Maralin Niska as well as the future international stars Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo, Carol Neblett and Norman Treigle. He offered fresh takes on standards such as La traviata and Madama Butterfly, and directed NYCO productions of The Cunning Little Vixen, The Makropoulos Case and Die tote Stadt, the last two notable for their pioneering use of video projections, and the premiere of Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke (1971). He also directed the premieres of Floyd’s

Of Mice and Men (Seattle, 1970) and Thomas Pasatieri’s The Seagull (Houston, 1974). His lone outing at the Metropolitan Opera (1984) was a transfer of his 1982 Ottawa staging of Rinaldo, the Met’s first-ever Handelian venture.

He wrote librettos for Pasatieri (Frau Margot) and Stephen Paulus (Heloise and Abelard). Corsaro played small roles (including Launcelot Gobbo in several productions of The Merchant of Venice), and went on to direct ten Broadway shows (1955-80) including The Night of the Iguana (1961) and Treemonisha (1975), with Carmen Balthrop and Willard White.

He was the director of the prestigious Actors Studio from 1988 to 1995 and continued to direct opera, particularly at the Juilliard School. David Shengold

Mit sehr freundlicher Genehmigung des Autors und John Allisons, Chefredakteur des britischen Opernmagazins Opera (The world´s leadings Opera magazine), wo dieser Artikel in der Januarausgabe 2018 erschien und uns überlassen wurde. Danke an beide/ Foto oben: Frank Corsaro/ youtube