Amy Hutchison’s love for Italian opera permeated her “fascinating, brilliantly mounted double bill” of Donizetti’s Il Pigmalione and Rita for Chicago Opera Theater, wowing audiences and critics alike. Her productions of other Italian masterworks include Turandot (Orlando), Don Pasquale (Indianapolis), and La traviata (Los Angeles).
A champion of contemporary American opera, Amy directed COT’s Vanguard Initiative workshops of new works by Wang Lu and Kelley Rourke (The Beekeeper) and Stacy Garrop and Jerre Dye (The Transformation of Jane Doe). She has staged As One (Kaminsky/Campbell/Reed) in cities across the U.S. Her production of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Song From the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt was hailed as “imaginative” and “striking contemporary music theater.” Her historic production of William Grant Still’s Troubled Island for South Shore Opera Company of Chicago was named the #1 Classical Music Event of 2013 by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Hutchison served on the directing staffs of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera and on the faculty of The Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. She has staged productions at opera houses worldwide, including A View from the Bridge (Rome, Washington D.C., Portland); Hansel & Gretel (Zürich, Toronto, New York); Carmen (Milwaukee, Kansas City, Columbus); and Porgy and Bess (Teatro alla Scala, L’Opéra National de Paris, Teatro La Fenice and more).
Amy serves on the Board of About Face Theatre, the Advisory Board of South Chicago Dance Theatre and the LBTQ Giving Council of Chicago Foundation for Women. www.amyhutchison.com