Opera del West

Opera del West, helmed by Founder and Musical Director Eve K. Budnick, has brought opera to the MetroWest area, Cape Cod, as well as Boston, and provides an opportunity for young professional singers to tackle exciting roles in intimate settings. Now celebrating its 19th year as a company, Opera del West was started in 2006 with a mission to bring fully staged operas in original languages to the MetroWest suburbs, featuring singers who had finished their graduate degrees at the many conservatories located in New England. Opera del West has performed 34 operas in four languages (Italian, French, German and English) from the musical periods of Baroque to Contemporary.

Eve K. Budnick, artistic director

Eve K. Budnick founded Opera del West 19 years ago, music directing 34 productions for the company. "Eve Budnick's reputation for excellence is well-known in the business" (Thomas Pasatieri, opera composer). She has produced operas from the Baroque to the Contemporary period that were performed at The Center for Arts in Natick, Boston Center for Arts, Amazing Things Arts Center and churches in Falmouth and Cambridge. In the last couple of years, she’s created two online operas, Zoompresario, and La Divina.

Eve is the Chair of the Voice Department at Rivers School Conservatory, teaching vocal workshops, vocal diction and a vocal performance class, organizing masterclasses, and commissioning vocal works for the Contemporary Seminar. She has served as a Diction instructor for the Voice and Choral Conducting Department at Boston University and previously taught Diction and Vocal Literature at University of Connecticut. Eve was trained over two summers in the Boston Lyric Opera "Music! Words! Opera!" program to compose and direct original operas in the classroom. She has been a Music Director and Pianist for Opera Boston and Music Director for Suor Angelica for Boston Opera Collaborative. Ms. Budnick has been the music director for opera scenes programs for the Boston University Opera Institute, New England Conservatory Opera Workshop and Summer Opera Workshop. She has performed in faculty recitals at the University of Connecticut, Boston Conservatory, and Princeton University. Eve holds a bachelor's degree in Musicology from Princeton, a master's degree in Vocal Accompaniment and Coaching from BU, and a graduate diploma in Collaborative Piano from New England Conservatory.

Alyssa Weathersby, Choreographer/Dancer

Alyssa Weathersby is a New York-based director/choreographer, vocalist, and arts educator.

Working within a larger nexus of live performance, Alyssa's ability to wear many hats has honed her strongest creative gift: communication. Her ability to 'bridge the gap' lead to focus on creative direction and leadership.

As a director, Alyssa's stylistic staging is often hailed as "cleverly designed" and "compelling." Over this past season, Alyssa directed Opera in the Heights' Lucia di Lammermoor and joined the NYC early music ensemble TENET to direct the pastiche Ariadne, Unbound. Last season, Alyssa returned to UFOMT where she choreographed Anything Goes and served as Co-Director/Choreographer alongside George Pinney for Guys & Dolls and Little Shop of Horrors, directed the world premiere of Hildegard, Reborn with the NYPL at the Lincoln Center, directed Opera del West's La Divina, and directed and choreographed the regional premiere of James Shirley and John Locke's Cupid & Death with Early Music Access Project at the famed Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA, where she previously directed their production of Venus & Adonis in 2022.

Other highlights include directing the sell-out productions of Rigoletto (Opera in the Heights) and L'elisir d'amore (Boston Opera Collaborative), devising and directing an updated Così fan tutt[i] (Carnegie Mellon University), and joining the New England Conservatory to direct Hansel & Gretel and the Undergraduate Opera Scenes and selections of the graduate Perkins Opera Scenes programs. Alyssa has also served as staff at the international festival Prague Summer Nights (director, choreographer, fight choreographer).

Dan Shore, Stage Manager, Composer, Playwright

Dan Shore's most recent opera, Freedom Ride, premiered in 2020 to critical acclaim at Chicago Opera Theater, directed by Tazewell Thompson and conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya. The composer and playwright's many works for the stage include The Beautiful Bridegroom, An Embarrassing Position, Works of Mercy, Travel, and Anne Hutchinson. An alumnus of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, a Fulbright scholar, and a two-time winner of the National Opera Association's Chamber Opera Competition, Dan holds a B.M. and M.M. from the New England Conservatory and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Former faculty at Xavier University of Louisiana, Baruch College, and Emerson College, Dan is an Assistant Professor at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and has served as the official page turner for Opera del West since their very first performance. He is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.