Stage director
Octavio Cardenas captivates audiences with his visionary, visceral, and physical style of directing. Born in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico,
Opera News has praised him for creating “an immersive theater experience” while the
Dallas Morning News hailed him for bringing “every character and situation to life.” Recent projects include Papermoon’s production of
Barber of Seville with
Opera Delaware,
Lohengrin by Salvatore Sciarrino as a pop-up digital opera installation: a site-specific opera for COVID times in collaboration with artist
Lance McGoldrick and
Opera Southwest,
Cruzar la cara de la Luna with
Opera Santa Barbara, and the world premiere of
Zorro by Hector Armienta with
Opera Southwest.
Mr. Cardenas’ recent productions of
Silent Night for
Fort Worth Opera and
Lyric Opera of Kansas City were described as “a breathtaking realization” with “many brilliant touches.”
The Kansas City Star called the Lyric Opera’s production “one of its finest performances in recent memory.” Other recent productions include
La bohème for
Minnesota Opera to which the
Star Tribune acclaimed, “what makes the production a success, is Octavio Cardenas' staging." His production of
As One for
UrbanArias was acclaimed by
MD Theater Guide, “Under the direction of Octavio Cardenas, the two stars playfully make great use of both stage and energetic space—it seemed the theatre condensed and expanded with Hannah’s journey.”
As the former Director of Opera for
Baylor University, Mr. Cardenas directed productions of
L’elisir d’amore,
The Turn of the Screw,
Dialogues of the Carmelites,
Die Fledermaus,
Man of La Mancha,
La finta giardiniera,
HMS Pinafore and
Rita. He was Visiting Director of Opera at
Chapman University where he directed
Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Catán. He was a Resident Artist at
Minnesota Opera for 4 seasons and has served as the Head of Directing Staff at
Des Moines Metro Opera where he directed very successful site-specific productions of
María de Buenos Aires in a Black Box,
Rappaccini’s Daughter at Des Moines Botanical Gardens,
Galileo Galilei at a Planetarium,
The Tender Land on a corn field and
La bohème for the main stage. He has also been on the directing staff at
Chautauqua Opera and is currently a Professor of Opera at
The Eastman School of Music where he will be directing
Florencia en el Amazonas.
He received his Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from
UCLA, a Master of Music from the
University of South Carolina, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from
Centenary College in Louisiana.
