Josh Major Tackles Falstaff

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I assure him they do, that some loved his Dialogue of the Carmelites and loathed his A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that some found his direction “wonderful,” “beautiful,” and “often moving,” while others found it “strange,” “weird,” or “just plain wrong.” “‘Wrong’?” he asks. “I would say … there’s not much I would say.”

The consensus seems to be that his Carmelites was brilliantly affecting, his Cunning Little Vixen sweetly delightful, his Midsummer Night’s Dream barely tolerable—mostly because of the music—and that reaction to the rest was all over the map.

“People are allowed to disagree,” says Major. “I try to tell the story as well and as cleanly as I can, but I don’t expect everybody to agree with the story I decide to tell, because it’s done from a particular point of view, and people will disagree with your point of view.”

An associate professor, Major is marking his twentieth year in Ann Arbor. “It’s crazy. I never thought I’d stay this long. But I quite happily stayed.” Just because he lives and works here, however, doesn’t mean Major doesn’t travel. In addition to what he estimates to be upwards of thirty-five productions he’s done here, he’s directed dozens of operas from Tulsa to Tel Aviv.