Jeffrey Ellis

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

BWW Reviews: Nashville Opera's RIGOLETTO by Jeffrey Ellis Rife with corruption and intrigue, teeming with forbidden love and deception, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto is among the most often performed operas in America - and Nashville Opera closes out its 2009-2010 season with a beautifully designed and sumptuously mounted production of the Italian masterpiece in Andrew Jackson Hall at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Yet, as exquisite as its physical trappings are, Nashville Opera's Rigoletto may be even more impressive in its artful musicality: it is rapturously sung by a deft blending of talented newcomers to the Nashville stage.