Dugg McDonough

Mary Barrett Fruehan Associate Professor of Opera
Turner-Fischer Center for Opera

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Biography

Dugg, McDonough, Mary Barrett Fruehan Associate Professor of Opera and Artistic Director of the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera at LSU, is a three-time winner of The American Prize in Directing. For his achievements with LSU’s opera program, McDonough garnered first place in 2019 (Dog Days), second place in 2020 (Elizabeth Cree), and third place in 2021 (Two Remain/Out of Darkness). In addition to these personal accolades, his
opera productions have collected numerous first and second place awards from both The American Prize and the National Opera Association (NOA), the latter having awarded LSU first place seven times in its annual Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition.

Since coming to LSU in 2002, McDonough has staged 70 mainstage opera productions, including 10 world and American collegiate premieres. Particularly notable were 2007’s highly acclaimed performances of Carlisle Floyd’s Willie Stark, which were filmed by Newport Classic, Ltd. for international commercial DVD release. Another video highlight
came with David Amram’s Twelfth Night in 2010, again recorded by Newport Classic and included in a documentary celebrating the composer’s 80th birthday.

As a still-active professional director, McDonough has staged a wide variety of operas, operettas, and musicals for companies ranging from the New York City Opera to the Taipei International Arts Festival. Highlights in recent years have included the workshop premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Out of Darkness for Pensacola Opera; Elektra, Susannah, Dialogues of the Carmelites, La rondine, and The Tragedy of Carmen for Des Moines Metro Opera; Madama Butterfly and Amahl and the Night Visitors for Opéra Louisiane; Turandot and Madama Butterfly for Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra; Little Women, Sweeney Todd, La cenerentola, La tragédie de Carmen, and The Medium for
Pensacola Opera; and Tristan und Isolde for commercial CD release from Sofia, Bulgaria. Recent success also include Le nozze di Figaro and La cenerentola for Operafestival di Roma, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte for Land of Enchantment Opera, and The Face on the Barroom Floor for Rose Rock Opera Institute. A different and exciting credit came when he directed his Off-Broadway debut: Sincerely, Oscar!, a new musical revue of the life and works of Oscar Hammerstein II. His upcoming new works opera projects include the stage direction for the world premiere of Mara Gibson and Ann McCutchan's The Devil’s Dream and the planned debut of Maurice Wright’s The Blair Mountain Tragedy.

Among his additional credits, McDonough served four seasons as Staff Stage Director for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, under the leadership of Beverly Sills, and he spent two summers on the production staff of The Santa Fe Opera (beginning his professional career as Assistant Director on the American Premiere of the complete, three-act version of Alban Berg’s Lulu). For two years, he was Production Manager and Artistic Consultant for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, collaborating with such
notable stage directors as Colin Graham, Frank Corsaro, and Jonathan Miller. A librettist as well, McDonough authored Ordinary People, a New American Opera in Three Acts, which received its premiere workshop staging at the Maryland Opera Studio in 2008.

As a specialist in working with emerging performers, McDonough served for 20 years (1993-2012) as Co-Director of the Apprentice Artist Program of Des Moines Metro Opera. He has also stage directed for The Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Program, the San Diego Opera Center, the Young Artist Program of the Florida Grand (formerly Greater Miami) Opera, and the National Company and Education Department of the New York City Opera. As an adjudicator of vocal competitions, he has acted as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, as well as the Charles A. Lynam Vocal Competition. In 2021, McDonough was honored to join the prestigious faculty of OperaFest Sewanee at the long-standing Sewanee Summer Music Festival of Sewanee Music Center, for which he has been asked to join its Advisory Board, beginning in 2024.

McDonough’s academic resumé includes, in addition to his years at LSU, a 1985-2002 tenure as Associate Professor and Director of Opera Theater at Temple University’s Boyer College, and he has other teaching and directing credits at the University of Tennessee, the University of Oklahoma, Michigan State University, the Shepherd School of Music of Rice
University, Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory, and Loyola University New Orleans. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Duke University, a Master of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with extensive post-graduate studies in theater and opera history and literature and stage direction for opera at Indiana University