Sergio Vela (born June 27, 1964, in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American opera director, designer, radio and television host, musician, lawyer and academician.
He made his American debut at the Virginia Opera in 1994 with Strauss's Salome. In 2013, on occasion of Wagner's bicentennial, he directed and designed Parsifal at the Amazon Theatre in Manaus.
Much attached to Juan Ibáñez (1938-2000), he adapted Ibáñez's Siempre es hoy and directed it in 2000 as a homage to the late director.
At the invitation of Ana Lara, he directed and designed El Cimarrón by Henze at Mexico City's Teatro Helénico in 2001.
From 1989 until 1992 he was artistic manager and director of the Bellas Artes Opera; from 1992 to 2000 he was director general of the Festival Internacional Cervantino; he was also coordinator of the 2000 Cultural Program: From the 20th Century to the Third Millennium and from 2001 until 2006 he was general music director of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He was the president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA) during beginning of the presidency of Felipe Calderón, from 2006 until 2009.
During his tenure at the National Council for Culture and the Arts, at his initiative, an inclusive cultural policy implying the systematic and fruitful collaboration between the private and public sectors was firmly rooted; a much-praised and comprehensive National Culture Program was presented; the artists supported by the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) received a substantial increase on the monthly allowances and grants; an unprecedented increase on the public cultural budget was achieved; a National Culture Conference with the egalitarian participation of the Federal Government, the Mexico City Government and each of the State Governments and special committee for deciding the Federal financial support for cultural initiatives with full transparency were formally established; an annual minimum of Federal financial resources was decided for guaranteeing the strength of each of the States in cultural matters; the first Ibero-American Film Congress was held in Mexico and it was opened by President Felipe Calderón and Felipe, Prince of Asturias; the technical renewal of the Palacio de Bellas Artes was conceived; a deep updating of Mexico's international cultural relations took place; remarkable exhibitions of Mexican art and on the History of Mexico were presented at top museums in Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin, Zürich, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Tokyo, among other cities; the Carlos Chávez Youth Orchestra was completely renewed; the Paris [Salon du livre] was dedicated to Mexico in 2009 and a Mexican Year in France was decreed for 2010; a much-expected Ley del libro (Book Law) was promulgated; an ambitious program for updating the historical theatrical venues and other cultural infrastructure was started; a new and consistent National Theatre Company (Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México) was founded; a sound collaboration between the National Council for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Commissions of the Senate of the Republic and of the Chamber of Deputies proved to be especially fruitful, and a Constitutional amendment for protecting and promoting the culture and the arts was agreed, with the support of all the political parties.
He has written and published a large amount of essays on art and the humanities, as well as poetic prose in several languages. A non-exhaustive list of such writings include:
Palabras de amor y gratitud de un intruso bendecido: el corpus creativo de Ernesto de la Peña (2014)
No el hallazgo de la felicidad, sino la felicidad del hallazgo (2014)
Memoria del lúgubre zureo (2013)
La magia illesa del dinasta Klingsor (2013)
Del hilemorfismo y los fantasmas en las fazañas del Faisán (2013)
Figment in the Manner of an Epistle (Figuración a manera de epístola) (2012)
Egmont. Versión narrativa de la tragedia de Goethe con música de Beethoven, tras Grillparzer (2012)
Lob des hohen Verstands (2010)
Sueño de un concierto de verano (Performing Narration to Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream) (2009)
Elogio de la sutileza (2008)
Élan d'amour (2007)
El espíritu de juego: cuestiones sobre educación artística y cultura (2007)
Mar de por medio (cuestiones amerindias) (2007)
Atlàntida: narración para la cantata escénica (2006)
Isagoge, improvisaciones póstumas y epílogo sobre La flauta mágica (2006)
Le regret de Selim (2006)
Oratio in memoriam clarissimum amicus amicorum (2005)
Excursión en torno a la naturaleza de la música (2004)
Zum Kurt Pahlens Abschied (2003)
Isagoge y cincuenta cuestiones a vuelapluma en torno al arte y el ácido desoxirribonucléico, a cincuenta años de un fasto inmarcesible (2003)
Non può quel che vuole, vorrà quel che può (2002)
El anillo del nibelungo en breve (2002)
Duelo por el corazón acorazado (2001)
El sibarita o del champaña (2001)
Eirene ancilla sophiae (2000)
Summus finis (2000)
Desde esta ladera (2000)
Elogio de las cumbres (2000)
Goethe y la música (1999)
Res severa uerum gaudium: The Visitors de Carlos Chávez (1999)
La gracia francesa (1999)
Glosa mínima a Arístides y a Kant (1998)
Otras Noches Áticas (1997)
Recensión a manera de pre-ludio (comentarios sobre estética a partir de Schiller) (1996)
El arte lógica (notas sobre estética a partir de Heidegger) (1995)
Celebración del arte fausta (cuestiones etimológicas) (1994)
Donde se dice que el sol es nuevo cada día (glosas heraclitianas) (1993)
Don Quijote y el derecho penal (1992)
Sobre la permeabilidad de los Campos Elíseos (1989)
La legiferancia y la prudencia (1988)
Personal life
Born to a cultivated family with roots in northern Mexico, southern Spain and the United States, his late father was the distinguished lawyer and academician Sergio Vela Treviño (1930-1993), and his mother is American-born Elena Vela Treviño, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and is acknowledged as a songwriter with the name of Nina Mares.
In 1991 he married Spanish-Mexican lawyer Marta Fuentes, and they have two daughters: Isolda María (born 1996) and Julia María (born 1999). Since her childhood, Isolda has taken part in several of her father's productions.
