Madeleine Snow is an adventurous director and creative collaborator whose work spans opera, theatre, and film. In the 2023-24 season, she directed a new adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Boulder Opera Company and brought her keen interest in arts education to Loveland Opera Theatre to direct educational outreach performances of Davies’s The Three Little Pigs. Madeleine also makes her company debuts with Palm Beach Opera, assistant directing Bellini’s Norma, and the Perelman Performing Arts Center, assistant directing the New York premiere of Ruo’s An American Soldier, co-produced with Boston Lyric Opera and American Composers Orchestra, as a part of PAC NYC’s inaugural season. With Central City Opera, Madeleine will assistant direct Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, stage direct the Young Artists performance of The Pirates of Penzance, and direct opera scenes for the Short Works performances during the 2024 Festival.

Madeleine has staged a variety of operatic repertoire, including Massenet’s Cendrillon, Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s La Traviata, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Mazzoli’s Proving Up, Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Bologne’s L’Amant Anonyme, Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, and Puts’s Elizabeth Cree. Passionate about reimagining ways for contemporary audiences to engage with classical music, she directed a new production of Cavalli’s La Calisto with Eastman Opera Theatre and was named a finalist for the 2023 American Prize in Directing for her innovative interpretation. She also brought an inventive, immersive twist to selections from Mozart’s most beloved operas, including Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte, in site-specific, outdoor performances as a part of Eastman Opera Theatre’s Mozart Mayhem. A founder of Rochester Summer Opera, she directed and choreographed the company’s inaugural production of Die Fledermaus at the Memorial Art Gallery.

An advocate of new works, Madeleine has enjoyed collaborating with contemporary composers. She recently directed the world premiere of Joshua Daniel Hershfield’s Rise, a critically acclaimed rock musical inspired by true stories of young women resistance fighters during the Holocaust. With celebrated American composer Ricky Ian Gordon, she staged the composer’s art songs in Heart Melodies as a part of Our Voices, a project championing collaborations with living composers and centering interpretive exploration with singers and pianists. Additionally, in collaboration with distinguished theatre and opera composer Ben Moore, she directed (RE)LIVE, featuring selections from the composer’s stage works, including Gene and Tate (world premiere), Enemies, A Love Story, Henry and Company, Odyssey, and Robin Hood. As an opera libretto writer, she directed a reading of her adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s final novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Madeleine holds an A.B. in Psychology and Theater, Dance & Media from Harvard University and an M.M. in Opera Stage Directing from the Eastman School of Music, where she instructed several courses on acting for opera singers and served as a dramatic coach on the faculty. She is also an alumna of the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive. Madeleine has previously worked as a director with Harvard College Opera, the Radcliffe Institute, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, JCC CenterStage, and Boston Youth Symphony, and she has held administrative positions with Opera Colorado, Boston Lyric Opera, American Repertory Theater, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.