Kristine McIntyre has directed more than 100 operas with a focus on new, contemporary and American works, including the world premiers of Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed's Hometown to the World at the Santa Fe Opera, Kristin Kuster and Mark Campbell's A Thousand Acres for Des Moines Opera, based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Jane Smiley, and the first opera written to be performed in a planetarium, Galaxies in Her Eyes by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy Punt. She recently directed her first opera film, Unknown, for UrbanArias, based on the song cycle by Shawn Okpebholo and Marcus Amaker, and also directed the premiers of Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre for the Center for Contemporary Opera, Kirke Mechem's John Brown for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Place Where You Started by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy Punt at Art Share LA, and Mirror Game by Celka Ojakangas and Amy Punt.
Upcoming projects include new productions of Dark Sisters, The Magic Flute, Galaxies in Her Eyes and a stunning Bluebeard's Castle in collaboration with world-famous visual artist Oyoram for Des Moines Metro Opera.
Recent productions include Moby Dick, Flight, Dead Man Walking, Wozzeck, Billy Budd and Manon (regional Emmy awards), a film-noir inspired Don Giovanni, Peter Grimes, Jenüfa, Street Scene, As One, Glory Denied, Soldier Songs, Sweeney Todd, Florencia en el Amazonas, Elmer Gantry, Of Mice and Men, Trouble in Tahiti, The Seven Deadly Sins, The Tender Land, a new English-language adaptation of Poulenc's The Human Voice, Vanessa, The End of the Affair, Three Decembers, The Turn of the Screw, Semele, Rusalka, Eugene Onegin, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, La cenerentola, Cosi fan tutte, Un ballo in maschera, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, La clemenza di Tito, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Werther and Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Kristine has also directed opera for the digital realm, including the Studio Artist Showcase for Houston Grand Opera in 2020 and 2021, a recital series for the Portland Opera's Resident Artist program and the Women in Politics recital featuring works by Stacey Garrop and Jake Heggie for Portland Opera at Home. She collaborated with several companies on the filming of her bilingual Spanish-English adaptation of The Barber of Seville, one of the many operas she has adapted and directed for education and community opera programs throughout the country.
Passionate about the training of the next generation of opera artists, Kristine has also taught and directed in many young artist programs, including those at Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Portland Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and The Santa Fe Opera. She regularly mentors young directors, composers and librettists and serves on the steering committee of the Women's Opera Network at Opera America.
Kristine began her opera career at the San Francisco Opera and then spent eight years on the directing staff of the Metropolitan Opera where she directed numerous revivals. With a background in theater, Kristine founded and was the artistic director of everyman, a San Francisco-based theater company. She also collaborated with Rebecca Salzer Dance Theater with whom she co-created pieces of dance / spoken word theater including Skywatch! and Bird Lady, which explores the life and work of street photographer Vivian Maier. For many years, she was a reader and educator for the Playwrights Project, critiquing plays as part of their California-wide playwriting competition. Kristine holds a B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University, spent her junior at Oxford University studying and directing Shakespeare and has an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Hull in England.
