To celebrate and spotlight some of the field’s top artists and emerging singers, OPERA America recently asked company leadership to nominate the singers and production artists who have caught their ears and eyes.

James Robinson, general and artis­tic director of the Seattle Opera, began his operatic career as an usher at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. Although his background was in musical composition, he fell in love with the visual and col­laborative spectacle of opera.

In the years since, he’s devoted himself to bringing new works to the stage, including 16 operas as artistic director at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he directed the now-famous operas Champion (Terence Blanchard, composer; Michael Cristofer, librettist) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Terence Blanchard com­poser; Kasi Lemmons, librettist).

“Is there a finer, more detailed, more musical, more infinitely theatrical director in the U.S. than James Robinson?” says Patrick Summers, the artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera. “He falls for no gimmicks, does not impose him­self onto a work, and trusts opera to do what opera does best.”

In January, Robinson, a jazz aficionado who says he’s currently listening to the jazz singer Samara Joy, will direct a new production of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Silent Night (Kevin Puts, composer; Mark Campbell, librettist), which premiered in 2011 at Minnesota Opera. “It’s a piece I’ve always admired and have never done,” Robinson explains. “It’s one of the most successful modern operas of the past 10–15 years.”

For this new production, a co-production between Houston Grand Opera and the Metropoli­tan Opera, Robinson is working with scenic designer Mimi Lien and costume designer Catherine Zuber, with whom he collaborated on Porgy and Bess at the Metropol­itan Opera, among other projects. Lap Chi Chu is the lighting designer, Andrew Harper is the sound designer, and Séan Curran will round out the production team as movement director.

“Zuber is one the great­est theater artists in the United States,” and Lap Chi Chu is a “terrific lighting designer,” says Robinson, always quick to praise his collaborators.

James Robinson's Silent Night is one of four In the Wings profiles featured in our summer 2025 magazine. You can read all the profiles here.

In the Wings is underwritten by generous support from Laurie E. Nelson Randlett, trustee of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera.

Organizational members interested in learning about productions for rent can access the Technical/Production Directory.