Born in Iran, Lotfi Mansouri attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and received U.S. citizenship before serving as resident stage director at Zurich Opera from 1960 to 1966. In 1965 he started working simultaneously at the Geneva Opera, where he became stage director in 1966 and remained until 1976. During this period, he began fulfilling engagements as guest director at various houses throughout Italy and North America, including Chicago, Houston, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas, and both the Metropolitan and New York City Opera companies. In 1976 he was named general director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, where he directed 30 new productions, 12 of them Canadian premieres. Mansouri introduced supertitles in January, 1983, and this is generally regarded as the first use of such a translation system. As San Francisco Opera's general director from 1988 to 2001 and currently general director emeritus, began his association with the company in 1963, when he staged six productions. He has since staged more than 60 productions there. In 1992 he became a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France, and is the subject of a 1998 biography by Joan Chatfield-Taylor, An Operatic Odyssey: Lotfi Mansouri and San Francisco Opera. He is the author of Lotfi Mansouri, An Operatic Life, and his film credits include operatic portions of 'Moonstruck' and 'Yes, Giorgio' starring Luciano Pavarotti. The National Endowment for the Arts honored Mr. Mansouri at the NEA Opera Honors in November 2009. |
This interview was recorded at Mansouri’s apartment in Chicago on May 11, 1982. A portion was transcribed and published in Nit & Wit Magazine in November, 1986. The complete conversation was re-edited for this website posting in 2012.
To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been
transcribed and posted on this website, click here.
Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.
You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.