Stage Director Michael Scarola’s imaginative and finely detailed style has earned him recognition and return engagements in many of the leading companies in the U.S. and abroad. He was on the Metropolitan Opera directing staff for five seasons with productions including the MET Premiere of La Cenerentola starring Cecelia Bartoli, conducted by James Levine and telecast on PBS, as well as other diverse repertory including Salome, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tosca with Plácido Domingo, Rigoletto, Andrea Chénier (PBS telecast with Luciano Pavarotti and Levine), The Ghosts of Versailles, and the MET premieres of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the 2008-2009 season, he directed Carmen with the San Antonio Opera, Anna Bolena at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Regina with Utah Symphony and Opera, Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera, L’Elisir d’Amore with Tulsa Opera, Bernstein’s Mass in a return to Utah Symphony and Opera, The Mikado at Opera New Jersey, and a Richard Rodgers Celebration with the Boston Pops. Throughout 2010, he directs The Flying Dutchman at Madison Opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites at the University of Utah, Don Pasquale at Opera New Jersey, “An Evening with Cole Porter” concert with the Boston Pops, and Carmen at Opera Naples in 2011.

In the recent 2007-2008 season, he returned to New York City Opera for his fifth season on the directing staff for their productions of Don Giovanni, Falstaff and Carmen, as well as directing Elijah with the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall, Lucia di Lammermoor with Madison Opera, and his debut with Opera Pacific for La Bohèmeand Dayton Opera for his first Macbeth. The Dayton City Paper said, “Stage director Michael Scarola effectively deploys his singers and supers to build an intensely dramatic production.”

In the 2006-2007 season, he began with two critically-acclaimed productions: Carmen for Indianapolis Opera and Rigoletto for his Madison Opera debut, conducted by John DeMain. This was followed by his Dallas Opera debut directing La Rondine staring Veronica Villarroel and Massimo Giordano, and a return to Utah Opera to direct Lucia di Lammermoor. He also directed new productions of Die Fledermaus for the University of Memphis, and The Pirates of Penzance and Rigoletto for New Jersey Opera.

In May 2007, Mr. Scarola had the honor of working with Emmy Award-winning Partisan Pictures in its initial filming of a feature documentary on the incredible story of Raphael Schächter and his performances of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in the concentration camp of Terezín, near Prague in the Czech Republic. Besides his previous role as Music Consultant to the project, he was instrumental in the success of capturing this tribute performance of author and conductor Murry Sidlin’s Defiant Requiem– a feature of the 2006 Prague Spring International Music Festival – as the on-set camera director overseeing the movements of five cameras.

Additional recent noted engagements include his Utah Opera debut directing La Rondine, Puccini’s Le Villi and the third act of Turandot for the Collegiate Chorale staring Aprile Millo, Die Zauberflöte for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, a double bill Gianni Schicchi and Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost for Opera New Jersey, Rusalka with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, a Concert Staging of La Forza del Destino for the Collegiate Chorale which featured the Carnegie Hall debut of tenor Salvatore Licitra, Bernstein’s Mass for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination, and excerpts from Mass for the re-opening of the Opera House at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

The Opera Orchestra of New York invited Mr. Scarola to join their staff to direct concert stagings of their performances in Carnegie Hall, including Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia starring Renée Fleming and Marcello Giordani, Otello with Carlo Bergonzi, Verdi’s Jerusalemand I Masnadieri with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, La Sonnambulastarring Ruth Ann Swenson, Donizetti’s Poliuto, and Halevy’s La Juive.