La Cenerentola De Nationale Opera, 2019 (detail) View full image

Laurent Pelly

Director

Laurent Pelly's sense of comedy operates its wizardry again and sends the audience chuckling and laughing as few others can do. There are some gags of course but, mostly, it is polished direction that fuels the comedy

Bachtrack, La Cenerentola, Dutch National Opera

Another Offenbach triumph for Laurent Pelly. After so many memorable shows, this Blue Beard confirms the director's special skills that bind him to the great musician and his librettists, the inexhaustible Meilhac and Halévy.

Diapason, Barbe bleue, Opéra de Lyon

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 composers including Russian and Czech. He brings theatrical insight to his work with singers and his concepts often contain surreal invention and a dark sense of humour. A master of detail, he designs the costumes for all his productions, as well as 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 (L’Opéra Comique), Il nozze di Figaro (Santa Fe Opera) and in 2021 he brings his sense of comic fantasy to the French theatrical premiere of Mary Chase’s Harvey (MC2 : Grenoble and on tour, including Lyon and Versailles).

Co-Director of Théâtre national de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées 2008–2018, creations include Ionesco’s La cantatrice chauve, Aristophane’s Les oiseaux, Goldoni’s L’oiseau vert (also at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin Paris) and Hugo’s Mille francs de récompense (also at l’Odéon in Paris) and Mangeront-ils? as well as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.