Poulenc Les Mamelles de Tirésias Glyndebourne 2022 (detail) View full image

Laurent Pelly

Director, Designer

***** scintillatingly, surreally brilliant

The Telegraph, Poulenc La Voix Humaine / Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Glyndebourne Festival 2022

***** Dig out your glad rags, pack up a picnic and beg, borrow or steal a ticket to Glyndebourne’s latest offering, a Poulenc double bill that will first turn you into an emotional wreck then have you laughing all the way home. There’s not a foot put wrong.... In both operas it’s the clarity and effectiveness of the creative team’s ideas that stand out. That and their brilliant execution.

The Times, Poulenc La Voix Humaine / Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Glyndebourne Festival 2022

A wonderful production which achieves something very rarely seen with this work - a perfect synergy between staging, singers and the pit. Director Laurent Pelly creates one of his greatest successes... And however magical and inventive it may be, his scenic imagination is not limited simply to “special effects”. His wonderful direction of the singers summons with virtuosity the fantastical world of the spirits, Athenian heroes and Earth people. Vividly outlined situations, a gallery of quicksilver portraits – this Shakespearean dream achieves the ideal alchemy between comic edge and poetic shores

Le Monde, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Opéra de Lille

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.

Projects in 2023–24 Include Die Meistersinger at Teatro Real Madrid and Le Chauve Souris (in the original french) for Opéra de Lille, plus numerous revivals. His most recent work includes Il Turco in Italia at Teatro Real Madrid, Eugene Onegin at La Monnaie de Munt and Royal Danish Opera, La Périchole at Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Lakmé at Opéra Comique, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Lille and Poulenc La voix humaine/Les mamelles de Tirésias for the Glyndebourne Festival (winner of Best New Production at the International Awards 2022).

He was Co-Director of Théâtre national de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (2008–2018) where creations included Ionesco’s La cantatrice chauve, Aristophane’s Les oiseaux, Goldoni’s L’oiseau vert and Hugo’s Mangeront-ils? as well as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2021 he brought his sense of comic fantasy to the first French theatrical production of Mary Chase’s Harvey, which continued to tour in 2022–23, featuring acclaimed french actor Jacques Gamblin. This season sees the premiere of his latest theatrical venture – Goldoni’s L’Impresario de Smyrne (Scènes de la vie d’opéra).