11
February
2023
Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost
Stage Director
Florida Grand Opera
Fort Lauderdale, FL
“Mo Zhou represents the next generation of opera artists combining impeccable schooling with already extensive professional experience, knowledge, and passion for the art of opera.”
— Paula Wang in NY Times Chinese Edition
HER | alive.un.dead – Guerilla Opera – 2023
“Mo Zhou’s savvy stage directions made swift and effective use of the intimate venue. Sets included little more than a table and backdrop for video projections, handily proving — as many Guerilla Opera performances do — that fancy dancy special effects do not always make for a good show. HER | alive.un.dead proves that some stories are best told by trusting the audience’s imagination.” — Aaron Keebaugh, ArtsFuse
IPHIGENIÉ EN TAURIDE – Boston Baroque – 2023
“The result was an unambiguous triumph for Boston Baroque, conductor Martin Pearlman, and stage director Mo Zhou.” — A.Z. Madonna, Boston Globe
“Unabashedly modern” — Lee Eiseman, Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Lithe and economical, Boston Baroque’s superb production of Iphigénie en Tauride proved the old adage that less can be more.” — Aaron Keebaugh, ArtsFuse
“Mo Zhou’s direction probably shows best in the livestream, which is available through Idagio. (Boston Baroque made a robust commitment to live-streaming during the pandemic, and has continued to do so.) Zhou kept the forward energy constant, and the production benefited from her subtle blocking and directions for stylized, emotionally charged acting.” — Keith Powers, Opera News
GIANNI SCHICCHI/BUOSO’S GHOST – Florida Grand Opera 2023
“Operatic comedy is serious business to get right. Saturday night’s opening of Florida Grand Opera’s double bill of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and composer Michael Ching’s sequel Buoso’s Ghost at the Arsht Center proved that point. With adroit staging, terrific singing from top to bottom by a large cast and an eye-filling production, this pairing is both potent theater and delightful entertainment.”
“Mo Zhou’s deft staging brought out the twin bill’s fun. The opening scene, as the Buoso relatives scavenge the house and turn it upside down to find the will between fake tears, drew much laughter from the audience.” —Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Classical Review
“The production directed by Mo Zhou is suffused with humorous touches; her cast is clearly having a great time playing just one millimeter short of leaping over-the-top with plenty of eye-popping, grimaces and vaudevillian physicality.” —Bill Hirschman, Florida Theater On Stage
“Florida Grand Opera’s pairing of these two works (seen Feb. 9 at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center), both operas crisply conducted by Ching, made a thoroughly engaging evening, thanks in large part to Mo Zhou’s lively staging and an enthusiastic ensemble cast.” —Opera News
RINALDO – Minnesota Opera 2022
“Director Mo Zhou transplanted Handel’s tale of the crusades to 1980s Wall Street in a production wonderfully staged, sung and memorably costumed, christening the company’s intimate North Loop space.” —Rob Hubbard, Star Tribune (Minnesota’s Top 10 Classical Highlights of 2022)
DON GIOVANNI – Florida Grand Opera 2019
“Zhou’s production successfully shone a spotlight on the inner lives of the women whose lives are uprooted by Giovanni’s violence, greed, and rage…We should feel uncomfortable watching these moments on stage, period.”— Carly Gordon in Schmopera
“Zhou had soprano Elizabeth de Trejo stand center stage and address the audience directly…[s]peaking out like so many contemporary women at the trials of powerful men, her testimony was chilling.”— Celeste Landeros in Opera News
“Stage director Mo Zhou framed the opera with a shrewd eye, especially abandoning cliché for tenderness in staging the couples scenes – encouraging a soft hand to the cheek, a playful gesture, a cheeky smile. She mined the relationship between Giovanni and Leporello, bringing out the subtleties in their personalities to deepen and widen their bond.”— Steve Gladstone in MiamiArtZine
“ Mo Zhou, making her FGO debut, has taken the #MeToo movement into account and come up with a Giovanni closer in spirit to the text: A man entirely made of id, driven by a thirst for sexual conquest, and glorying in his ability to carry it off so successfully.”— Greg Stepanich in Palm Beach Arts Paper
