James Darrah Black is a director, set designer, and producer. Formerly creative director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he is now artistic director and creative director of Long Beach Opera. He explores the connections between film, theater, and opera, notably in the feature film The Fall of the House of Usher and with the world premiere of Desert In. He is the producer, set designer, and screenwriter of the Grammy Award-nominated film adaptation of D.T. Little's Soldier Songs. He wrote, directed, and produced a film adaptation of La voix humaine with soprano P. Racette. With Opera Philadelphia, he has directed numerous new productions, including the world premiere of M. Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves and Semele. His other world premieres include K. Soper's The Romance of the Rose (Long Beach Opera), E. Reid's p r i s m (LA Opera, Prototype Festival), Breaking the Waves (Opera Philadelphia), and M. Mazzoli's Proving Up (Opera Omaha; Miller Theater New York) by M. Mazzoli, Four Preludes on Playthings on the Wind by M. Tilson Thomas (SF Symphony, LA Philharmonic, New World Symphony), The Brightness of Light by K. Puts (Tanglewood), and The Lord of Cries by J. Corigliano. He directed J. Higdon's Cold Mountain and J. Dove's The Other Euridice and Flight. From 2016 to 2021, he was artistic director of the ONE Festival, where he set up unique residencies in the field of opera. From 2017 to 2022, he was a professor at UCLA and creative director of the Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West. In 2022, he is artist-in-residence and creative producer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Winner of the Princess Grace Award, he has been nominated for the International Opera Awards. Two of his world premieres have won the MCNA Critics' Best New Opera Award. Nuit sans Aube is his first production at the Opéra-Comique.
