'Michael Ewans is Conjoint Professor in the University of Newcastle's School of Drama, Fine Art and Music. He specialises in directing both opera and plays, writing libretti, and writing books and articles which explore how operas and dramas work in the theatre. He is the author of Janacek's Tragic Operas, Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, Wagner and Aeschylus and a complete set of translations of Aeschylus and Sophocles in four volumes, with theatrical commentaries based on his own productions. He has recently published Opera from the Greek, containing eight case studies in the appropriation of material from Greek tragedy and epic by composers from Monteverdi to Mark-Antony Turnage, and Aristophanes; Lysistrata, The Women's Festival and Frogs in his own new translations with theatrical commentaries.' (Source: The Australian Academy of the Humanities website.)