Adam Da Ros is a Canadian stage and music director active in opera and musical theatre. He recently made his debut with Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center as assistant stage director on Verdi’s “Il trovatore” with director Brenna Corner. For the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, Adam was Director of the Opera Theatre program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he directed scenes programs and mainstage productions of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Mark Adamo’s Little Women.
Adam holds a Master of Music degree in Opera from the University of British Columbia, where he trained as a vocalist before specializing in stage direction and opera production, serving as assistant stage director to program director Nancy Hermiston for three seasons. He is an alumnus of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera, where he also worked in the Artistic Planning department for two seasons. As a young artist, he was assistant stage director on productions of L’elisir d’amore and Eugene Onegin, as well as director for the Vancouver Opera in Schools tour of Dean Burry’s The Scorpion’s Sting. He also spent two seasons as Resident Artist Stage Director at Minnesota Opera, where he was part of the staging team for eight mainstage productions, including two world premieres, as well as directing members of the Resident Artist Program in promotional and outreach activities, including a concert for Opera America’s National Opera Center in New York City.
Recent directing credits include Il barbiere di Siviglia and Madama Butterfly for Burnaby Lyric Opera, Un ballo in maschera with Opera Mariposa and Heroic Opera, and three original adaptations for Manitoba Underground Opera: Mozart’s Idomeneo designed for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a modern adaptation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas combined with Canadian composer James Rolfe’s Aeneas and Dido, and most recently an 80-minute reduction of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro set in Winnipeg’s Club 200.
Adam has been actively involved with several contemporary music ensembles, directing Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King for Nu:BC Collective, and the world premiere of The Old Man and the Sea by Rita Ueda with Turning Point Ensemble for the International Society for Contemporary Music’s World New Music Days 2017.
As a music director for musical theater, he has led productions of Tommy with Renegade Arts Company and Murder Ballad, CATS and Ragtime: In Concert with Fighting Chance Productions, receiving the 2017 Community Theatre Coalition Awards for Best Musical Director and Best Musical for Ragtime.
He has also worked as an assistant director, assistant conductor, pianist, and administrator at various summer festivals, including Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Opera NUOVA, Halifax Summer Opera Festival, the Accademia Europea dell’Opera and as a stage director for the 2018 Opera in the 21st Century program at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.