About
Matthew Ferraro made his European debut in 2014, directing and designing a critically acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly at Theater Erfurt in Germany.
In January of 2018, Mr. Ferraro made his debut with Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, where he directed and and designed a new production of Les vêpres siciliennes. He returned to Würzburg in 2019 to direct and design a sold-out production of Evita. Mr. Ferraro returned to Theater Erfurt in 2021 to direct and design a new production of Sweeney Todd, which played through the spring of 2022. He returned to Würzburg in March of 2023 to direct a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Mr. Ferraro is also the director of the Acrobuffos’ new international touring show, Paradise, which will open in the fall of 2024. In 2023, his submission won a contest to design a new modular stage system for the opera house in Wuppertal, Germany.
Mr. Ferraro was born in New York City. He began working in the theater at age 14, when he toured the Catskill hotels with a nightclub cabaret show as a camper at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center.
As a student at Princeton University, Mr. Ferraro performed in over thirty productions, produced a play off-Broadway in New York City, directed two musicals, and received the Francis LeMoyne Page Theater Award. He then attended The Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater, where he studied Commedia and mask performance. He trained as a ballet dancer in New York City with David Howard and Wilhelm Burmann. In order to afford his ballet classes, Mr. Ferraro worked for five years as a night janitor at Steps on Broadway, cleaning floors, bathrooms, mirrors, and stairwells.
Before turning to directing opera, Mr. Ferraro danced principal, soloist, and corps roles with New York City Opera and The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Ballet Theater of Boston, Orange County Ballet, Ballet Northeast, The Arden Theater Co. in Philadelphia, The Paper Mill Playhouse, and Palm Beach Opera.
As a choreographer, Mr. Ferraro worked at the Kennedy Center with The Washington National Opera (Der fliegende Holländer), and with Portland Opera (Die Fledermaus and Salome), Opera Theater of St. Louis (Troilus and Cressida), Santa Fe Opera (Don Giovanni), Virginia Opera (Salome and Les pêcheurs de perles), Lyric Opera Studio Weimar (Don Giovanni), and Boston Lyric Opera (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).
As an assistant director, Mr. Ferraro worked on productions at Opera Theater of St. Louis (Salome and Eugene Onegin), The Dallas Opera (Boris Godunov and Die tote Stadt,) Palm Beach Opera (Così fan tutte, Orphée et Eurydice, Nabucco), Florida Grand Opera (La Rondine, La Bohème, Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata), Boston Lyric Opera (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Virginia Opera (Salome and Les pêcheurs de perles), The Innsbruck Early Music Festival (Acis and Galatea), Portland Opera (Die Fledermaus and Salome), Opera Philadelphia (L’elisir d’amore) , and Santa Fe Opera (L’elisir d’amore, Faust, Carmen).
In addition to his work in Europe, Mr. Ferraro has also directed and designed productions for Opera in the Heights in Houston, Texas, (Un Ballo in Maschera) Palm Beach Opera (Trouble in Tahiti, Hansel and Gretel, and Ariodante), and The Hartt School of Music, where he has designed eight new productions (Street Scene (twice), Orphée aux enfers, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Merry Widow, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Die Fledermaus and Hansel and Gretel) and has been a visiting artist and opera director since 2015. He has also been a visiting lecturer for the music department at Princeton University.
Mr. Ferraro is married to artist Kristin Purcell. They live in Providence, Rhode Island.