French-born Laurent Pelly enjoys a career as one of France’s most sought after directors of both theatre and opera.  He directs and designs costumes for productions that are detailed, satirical, often surreal, exquisite in taste and wonderfully imaginative in both conception and execution.  He is particularly renowned for his work in French repertoire, and has a particular skill for revealing the serious side of comedy; however he is increasingly in demand as a director of more weighty music-dramas.  He underlines his interpretation of characters through his skilful and inspired costume designs. 

Laurent Pelly enjoys a distinguished career in the theatre – in 2007 he was appointed Director of Théâtre National de Toulouse, having previously been Director of Cargo / Centre Dramatique National des Alpes in Grenoble from 1997-2007.  Highlights in Toulouse include Victor Hugo’s Mille cents francs de récompense (also at l’Odéon in Paris and winner of the 2011 french critics “best director” award, as well as “best set design”), Hanokh Levin’s Funérailles d’hiver, Carlo Goldoni’s Le Menteur, Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, a staged recital of songs by Michel Legrand, featuring Natalie Dessay and most recently Shakespeare’s Macbeth, for which also designed both sets and costumes.

Current opera productions include a double-bill of Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges and L'heure espagnole for the Glyndebourne and Saito Kinen Festivals, Robert le Diable for the Royal Opera House and Grand Théâtre de Genève and Bellini’s I Puritani for L’Opéra national de Paris and Metropolitan Opera.  Other current productions include Manon at Covent Garden (also in Japan in September 2010), Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala Milan and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; Cendrillon (originally created in Santa Fe) at Covent Garden, Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, La Monnaie Brussels and Opéra de Lille and a new version of Les contes d’Hoffmann for San Francisco Opera and Teatro del Liceu. 

Other recent work includes Handel’s Guilio Cesare for L’Opéra national de Paris, Kurt Weil’s Threepenny Opera for la Comédie-Française, Massenet’s Don Quichotte at La Monnaie, Mahagonny for Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne for Opéra de Lyon and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Hansel und Gretel  for Glyndebourne Festival (also revived in Lyon) and Verdi’s La traviata at Santa Fe and Teatro Regio di Torino. 

His celebrated production of Donizetti’s La fille du régiment (Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera) received world-wide acclaim, and enjoys constant revival throughout the world, whilst other productions include Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Saito Kinen Festival and Maggio Musicale Florence), Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Mozart’s La finta semplice (Theater an der Wien), Prokofiev’s The Love of the Three Oranges (Netherlands Opera),  L’elisir d’amore (Opéra national de Paris, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Mariinsky Theatre St Petersburg and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Weill’s Les Sept péchés Capitaux (Opéra national de Paris), Poulenc’s La Voix humaine and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Opéra National de Lyon), Rameau’s Platée (Opéra national de Paris, Santa Fe), Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui for Opéra National de Lyon and L’Opéra Comique Offenbach’s La Grande Duchesse at Théâtre du Châtelet and La Belle Hélène (Théâtre du Châtelet, Santa Fe, English National Opera). 

April 2012