Lucy Yates (soprano, pianist, coach) made her conducting debut in 2018 as maestro al cembalo at Seattle Opera with the “extremely inventive” O+E (Gluck/Calzabigi 1762 Orfeo ed Euridice), in an “elegantly poetic” English version she created for that production. She made her Rossini Opera Festival debut in 2014 as assistant conductor and onstage continuo fortepianist in Mario Martone’s staging of Aureliano in Palmira.

Miss Yates first drew international attention as Violetta in a 2002 Franco Zeffirelli/Plácido Domingo production of La traviata (Teatro Verdi di Busseto) and was immediately engaged by Gian Carlo Menotti for Spoleto (Monica in The Medium, under his direction) and Francesco Maria Colombo for the Orchestra Verdi di Milano. Critics called her Gilda “perfect,” her Beatrice di Tenda “dazzling,” and her Fiordiligi “deliciously feminine”. She appeared as Nedda in Pagliacci at Sarasota Opera and as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Opera Company of North Carolina.

Through twenty years with Bel Canto at Caramoor—now Teatro Nuovo—with Will Crutchfield, Miss Yates has emerged as a cogent and lyrical translator and teacher of Italian poetry. She teaches for dell’Arte Opera Ensemble under Christopher Fecteau, and has served as dramaturg, titlist, and coach for the New York City Opera, and panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz.

Miss Yates is a Lecturer in Opera in the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA and a guest lecturer in the Thornton School of Music at USC. In spring 2020 she joined The Industry on keyboards for Sweet Land (music: Du Yun and Raven Chacon; direction: Yuval Sharon and Cannupahanska Luger) and was made a company member. She is presently preparing the Italian version of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.