From: Paris, France. LA Opera: Cinderella (2021, debut)
French opera and theatre director Laurent Pelly is sought after by the world’s most prestigious houses. With a natural affinity for Italian and French repertoire, his creative curiosity has led him in recent years towards other repertoire including Russian and Czech, to which he brings his trademark sense of dark humour and surreal fantasy. A master of detail, he designs all the costumes for his productions, and occasionally the sets.
Current projects include La Cenerentola (Dutch National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Génève, Palau de les Arts de Reina Sofia Valencia), Falstaff (Teatro Real Madrid, La Monnaie/de Munt, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Nikikai Opera Foundation Tokyo), Offenbach’s Le Voyage Dans La Lune for L’Opéra Comique and The Marriage of Figaro for Santa Fe Opera. Other recent productions include Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Philadelphia and Wiener Staatsoper, Offenbach’s Barbe bleue for L’Opéra de Lyon and Candide at The Santa Fe Opera.
As Co-Director of Théâtre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées from 2008 to 2018, highlights of his work include Carlo Gozzi’s L’oiseau vert, (also at Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, Paris), Aristophane’s Les Oiseaux, Ionesco’s La cantatrice chauve, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Victor Hugo’s Mille cents francs de récompense (also at l’Odéon in Paris). January 2021 saw the French premiere of Harvey by Mary Chase in a new translation by Agathe Mélinand premiering at MC2 : Grenoble and touring through the spring including Versailles and Lyon.
