The Architecture of Opera

Opera and architecture share a remarkable ability to shape how we move, feel, and experience space. Goethe famously described architecture as “frozen music,” recognizing the rhythm, proportion, structure, movement, and emotion that connect the two art forms. Join internationally acclaimed conductor Nicole Paiement, Founder and Artistic Director of San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, and OP Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel for a visually rich exploration of these connections. Drawing on OP’s upcoming production of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, they will reveal how an opera is built layer by layer through music, story, design, and performance—and how conductors, directors, and designers, like architects, order space and unite many individual elements to create a cohesive and transformative experience.

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Speakers:

Nicole Paiement

OP Founder & Artistic Director and acclaimed conductor Nicole Paiement has performed with
companies across the US and internationally, including the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in
Palermo, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Atlanta
Opera, and The Dallas Opera. Highlights include George Benjamin’s Written on Skin and
Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for L’Opéra de Montréal, Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life for
English National Opera, Joby Talbot’s Everest with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican Center,
and John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary for the Volksoper Vienna. In summer
2025, she conducted the world premiere of Derek Bermel’s The House on Mango Street at The
Glimmerglass Festival, as well as concerts at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. In
2025–26, Mo. Paiement has returned to Montréal to conduct Jenůfa, and debuted with the
Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania and Pacific Opera Victoria.

Brian Staufenbiel
Brian Staufenbiel, Creative Director of Opera Parallèle, has directed and created conceptual
designs for OP productions since the company’s founding in 2010. Specializing in multimedia,
immersive, and interdisciplinary productions, he works across numerous disciplines,
collaborating in film and with media designers, choreographers and dancers, circus artists, and
designer fabricators. His progressive approach has garnered critical acclaim for many OP
productions, including Wozzeck, Orphée, Champion, Dead Man Walking, and The Shining.
Work for OP in the 25-26 season includes Doubt, La Belle et la Bête at Cal Performances, and
reprise productions of The Shining at Portland Opera, Utah Opera, and Opera Tampa, and
Fellow Travelers at Pittsburgh Opera. Recent work includes The Pigeon Keeper, Harvey Milk
Reimagined, and Everest: Opera at the Planetarium for OP, Ainadamar for L’Opera de Montréal
and Pacific Opera Victoria, and Staufenbiel recently directed and co-produced Flicka a new
documentary about the life of Frederica Von Stade with Paper Wings Films.

Hosted by the Center for Architecture + Design in collaboration with AIASF. While registration is processed through AIASF, 100% of ticket proceeds directly support the Center for Architecture + Design's public programs, exhibitions, and educational initiatives, helping us advance design awareness and foster meaningful conversations about the built environment.