The Board of Cape Town Opera is very pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Elise Brunelle as the new Managing Director of Cape Town Opera.
Elise has been CTO’s Financial Manager for the past nine years, and brings extensive knowledge of the performing arts industry and the NGO sector, fresh insights and a strong business outlook.
Elise has the vision and undaunted resolve needed to usher in a new and invigorating era for this world class opera company, and her enterprise and experience will enable her to see opportunities in challenges.
We are confident that with Elise, the Company is in very capable and caring hands. Elise who is off to join the Cape Town Opera team in South Korea with CTO’s Porgy and Bess said, “Since joining the company in 2005, I’ve been thrilled to work alongside our strong staff and board as we keep this talented opera company on stages around the world. It’s a welcome responsibility, and with great energy, that I now accept the Managing Director position of Cape Town Opera. We are blessed with uniquely talented voices here. They are ambassadors of the best South African talent available, and I look forward to bringing our artists together with their audiences and our opera sponsors for years to come.”
Elise enjoys the privilege of being the Cape Town Opera’s managing director. Born in the United States, she’s fallen in love with Cape Town. Her father was the head of music at the Minnesota Opera, and following in his footsteps, she studied the arts and began her career as a theatre carpenter and welder. From these hands-on beginnings, she’s taken the CTO across international borders, bringing her love for the opera and theatre to countless performers and audiences alike. A particular career highlight for Elise was taking the Cape Town Opera on a second visit to Nuremberg, Germany, in 2009, where audiences gave the returning singers a particularly warm response and received their isiXhosa version of ‘The Champagne Song’ from Die Fledermaus with an ecstatic response.