Sergio Vela

Sergio Vela (born June 27, 1964, in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American opera director, designer, radio and television host, musician, lawyer and academician.

He studied piano with Héctor Rojas, singing with Maria Julius, orchestra conducting with Roswitha Heintze (1986) and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen School of Music (1988) and composition (1988–1992) with Humberto Hernández Medrano, a distinguished composer and a pupil of Carlos Chávez.

Among his European credits, he has directed and designed Turandot (1996) by Puccini at the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival, Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Mozart Festival in A Coruña (2002), the first modern production of Motezuma (2003) by Gian Francesco de Majo in Aschaffenburg, the first revival of María del Carmen (2003) by Granados at the Wexford Festival Opera, the first performance of the critical edition of La sonnambula (2004) by Bellini at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily and the world-premiere of the definitive version of Murmullos del páramo (2006) by Julio Estrada, performed at the Teatro Español (Madrid), the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, the Biennale di Venezia and at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl (Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

His frequent collaborators in his opera productions are costume designer Violeta Rojas, choreographer Ruby Tagle, visual artist Ghiju Díaz de León, technician Iván Cervantes, executive producer Juliana Vanscoit and assistant directors Paulina Franch and Marielle Kahn.

In the past, he has also counted on the collaboration of many relevant designers, such as Alejandro Luna, Jorge Ballina, Philippe Amand, Tolita Figueroa, María Figueroa, Giusi Giustino, Donna Zakowska, Hugh Landwehr, Mónica Raya, Eloise Kazan, Cristiana Aureggi, Nikos Petropoulos and Víctor Zapatero, as well as assistant directors Hernán del Riego and Daniele De Plano choreographer and dancer Victoria Gutiérrez and actress Margarita Sanz.

Among those who have conducted his productions are Antoni Ros-Marbà, Luiz Fernando Malheiro, Guido Maria Guida, Marko Letonja, Antonio Florio, Max Bragado-Darman, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Stefano Ranzani, Rico Saccani, José Areán John DeMain, Enrique Diemecke and Peter Mark.

Among the singers that have taken part in his productions are Ramón Vargas, Francisco Araiza, Kolos Kováts, Ghena Dimitrova, Katia Ricciarelli, Paata Burchuladze, Rolando Villazón, Jon Frederic West, Luana DeVol, Greer Grimsley, Janice Baird, Richard Paul Fink, and many others.