Michael Capasso
General Director

Photo by Giorgio Palmisano

Michael Capasso, General Director of Dicapo Opera Theatre, co-founded the company in 1981. Dubbed “New York’s third opera company,” Dicapo is the only professional, non-profit opera company aside from the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, producing a year-round, annual season of opera and other musical theater presentations in New York City. Its productions range from traditional repertoire to rarely performed operas, concerts, innovative music and dance presentations, family productions, and at least one contemporary work each season.

From the start, Michael Capasso has been dedicated to the music of Giacomo Puccini, and by the end of 2008—the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth—he will have presented all of the legendary Italian composer’s major works, from Le Villi, the composer’s first opera; The Mass; and orchestral works through his final opera, Turandot.

To date, Mr. Capasso has produced and/or directed well over 100 opera productions by more than two dozen composers, not only for Dicapo but also for opera companies throughout the eastern U.S. Among them are Puccini’s La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine, Edgar, and Trittico; Verdi’s La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, and Falstaff; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, L'elisir d'amore, Il Campanello, and La fille du regiment, as well as Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Norma, La Cenerentola, Die Fledermaus, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cosi fan tutte, Hansel and Gretel, The Threepenny Opera, Il Segreto di Susanna and Le voix humaine for Dicapo Opera Theatre and also for Orlando Opera, Toledo Opera, Connecticut Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Opera at Florham, Augusta Opera, Opera Carolina, and L'opera de Montreal. In 2003-04, the 100th anniversary year of the premiere of Madama Butterfly, Mr. Capasso directed all three versions of the opera (Milan, Brescia, Paris) in one weekend, the first time such a project was ever presented. He has directed Aida at Orlando Opera and Opera Tampa, and most recently directed Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Le Villi at the Calvia Festival in Mallorca, Spain. He also produced a series of concerts with orchestra and soloists in Venice, Italy.

Michael Capasso grew up in a nonmusical family of contractors in Great Neck, Long Island, but from the age of seven, when he saw Mario Lanza in “The Great Caruso,” he knew music would always be a part of his life. By the age of nine, he was a regular at the Metropolitan Opera and had struck up a friendship with Francis Robinson. However, the combination of Mr. Capasso’s love of music and family responsibilities led to a double life. At the same time that he produced his first operas—Il Tabarro on a barge in Manhasset followed by Cavalleria Rusticana—he was also forging a career in the family business, first, as a heavy equipment operator and, later, a field supervisor responsible for constructing sewers, water mains, and highway improvements. His two careers converged when Mr. Capasso obtained a 40,000-square-foot space in the lower level of St. Jean Baptiste Church. Using his skills and connections in the industry, he managed to build a permanent theater in 100 days. The 204-seat Dicapo Opera Theatre remains among the best and most perfectly equipped off-Broadway theaters in New York, complete with state-of-the-art computerized lighting and supertitling systems.

In order to nurture future generations of singers, in 1997 Mr. Capasso established a Resident Artists program at Dicapo to bridge the gap between singers’ musical training and their professional careers. Dicapo also produces reduced one-hour versions of operas for kids, geared to children from four years of age. In addition to the opera performances, these presentations all include demonstrations from the experts on how they produce the magic created onstage—the lighting, the sets, the costumes, special effects, as well as demonstrating how the singers produce that big sound

That same year, Mr. Capasso formed National Lyric Opera, which each season tours throughout the Northeast, bringing fully staged operas to thousands who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience opera live. This season the company he is taking Romeo et Juliette and La Fanciulla del West on the road.

To subsidize the costs of his love of opera, five years ago Mr. Capasso established Dicapo Scenic, which rents and custom-builds sets of any size and design. Sets and costumes from 25 years of Dicapo Opera productions are available for rental, and new productions are added every season.

As a writer, Michael Capasso’s credits include an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which the Today Show called, "the best Christmas Carol in New York"; Opera Senza Rancor, a satirical revue of the world of opera; a new libretto for La Perichole; translation librettos for Die Fledermaus and The Daughter of the Regiment; as well as a concert/lecture series for the New York Historical Society. Mr. Capasso's film on the life and career of Enrico Caruso, which he wrote and produced, aired on the A&E network’s “Biography” series and is available on DVD. In other film credits, Mr. Capasso directed scenes from Nabucco for the feature film “The Secret Lives of Dentists,” also available on DVD.

Michael Capasso has received numerous awards, including The Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a proclamation from the City of New York in conjunction with Italian Heritage and Culture Month, and the Leonardo Da Vinci Award for Cultural Achievement. Mr. Capasso is a member of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, a culinary group appointed by the Italian government to certify restaurants serving truly authentic Italian food. Most recently, Mr. Capasso was named “Man of the Year 2004” by the Italian Welfare League.

January 2008

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