MALLORY CATLETT

is a creator, director of performance across disciplines from plays, music/theater, multi-media, installation and opera


Opera 





Rainbird

Based on the novel Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room by the celebrated New Zealand author Janet Frame that tells the story of a middle-aged family man, Godfrey Rainbird, who gets hit by a car and is pronounced dead.  After the funeral arrangements have been made and his belongings have been cleared from the house, he wakes up in the morgue. Rainbird is an allegory, both ordinary and mythic, about those who return from the dead, as Frame notes, their “unique point of view that is a nightmare, a treasure, and a lifelong possession—equal in its rapture and chilling exposure to ancient gods and goddesses.”

"I have rarely been so shaken by a contemporary work." - Susan Brodie Opera Voice North America

Roulette October 2020, Co-Produced by Experiments in Opera, Restless NYC and Mabou Mines April 2025

Composer Aaron Seigel, Libretto Aaron Seigel and Mallory Catlett, Films by Andrew Denton, Set Peiyi Wong,  Lighting Yuki Nakase Link, Props Oscar Escodedo, Costume Olivera Gajic, Projection Attilio Rigotti. Performers: Gelsey Bell, Chris DiMeglio, Katie Geissinger, Shurmi Dhar, Jeff Tobias, Andie Tanning, Jess Tsang  and Sugar Vendil.






Echo Drift

Oscillating between the confines of a tiny cell and an expansive visual world of animation, the opera unravels a cycle of deceit, temptation, seduction, and fantastical perception.

“It’s a brilliant wedding of words and music, tightly staged by director Mallory Catlett and powered by a leave-it-all-out-there performance by Blythe Gaissert” - SF Classical Voice

HERE/Beth Morrison Productions/American Opera Projects in the Protoype Festival, Baruch Center for the Performing Arts NYC, 2018

Composer Mikael Karlsson, Libretto Elle Kunnos de Voss & Kathryn Walat, Conductor Nicholas DeMaison, Set Designer Elle Kunnos de Voss, Lighting Designer Chris Kuhl, Prop & Costume Design Andreea Mnicic. Performers: Blythe Gaissert AND John Kelly, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)


The Scarlet Ibis


Inspired by the 1960 short story by James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis explores two brothers struggle over the meaning of normal.

“its subject is subtly subversive, and its production groundbreaking.” - Wall Steel Journal

“an outstanding new chamber opera… a moving, intense and dignified creation.. it adds puppetry to opera’s basic elements in a completely organic way.” –  The New York Times

HERE/Beth Morrison Productions/American Opera Projects in the Protoype Festival, NYC, 2015

Composer Stefan Weissman, Librettist David Cote, Music Director Steve Osgood, Puppetry Tom Lee, Set Design Joseph Silovsky, Lighting Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew Costumes Andreea Mincic,  Performers: Eric S. Brenner, Hai-Ting Chinn, Abigail Fischer, Nicole Mitchell, Keith Phares. Puppeteers: Meghan Willliams,  Eric Avery, Josh Rice. The American Modern Ensemble



Brother Brother


The relationship of Orville and Wilbur Wright following their first flights in 1903 is layered over a secondary story of intimacy and contemporary brotherhood

Experiments in Opera, Abrons Arts Center NYC, 2014

Composer Aaron Siegel, Libretto Aaron Siegel, Conductor David Bloom, Set Mimi Lien, Lighting Jeanette Yew, Costume Andreea Mnicic. Performers: Michele Kennedy, Patrick Fennig, Marc Day, Julian A. Rozzell, Danyon Davis, Marie Ortinau, Jamie Ehrenfeld, Billy Lowrimore, Adrian Rosas &  Mantra Percussion & Cadillac Moon Ensemble
Mark