Ghost Light PodcastEpisode 5.12 – Omer Ben Seadia – Breaking the Glass Proscenium

Israeli director Omer Ben Saedia joined the Ghost Light Podcast prior to the opening of Utah Opera’s production of Peter Brook’s “La tragedie de Carmen” to discuss her thoughts about the current state of the world of opera. 

Omer feels that the current the current time is a golden era for female directors. “We have a lot to say, and we’ve been well trained…We have our own tastes, feelings, and perspectives. The more variety of these voices we have, the better.” 

They also explored the topic of how to make standard works in the repertory fell new and fresh for a changing world. “The key to exploring these things [topics of violence, especially to women], is not by changing them. But the confrontation of that is the thing that is very interesting.” 

Looking at the opera world going forward after the pandemic, Omer is interested in re-examining issues of race, class, and sexism that are often prevalent in opera. What are things the approaches that can be re-examined, and what are things that are actually baked into the piece and cannot be separated. Making that distinction is going to be really important going forward.”