Brigitta
Gillessen

Brigitta Gillessen studied directing at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. Her first engagements took her to Theater Heidelberg, Theater Freiburg and Landestheater Linz. There she directed the productions “Jakob Lenz” by Wolfgang Rihm, “The Soldier’s Tale” by Igor Stravinsky and “Die listige Witwe” (world premiere) by Peter Androsch. Further directing work included “Außer Kontrolle: Carmen” after Georges Bizet and “Cinderella” by Peter Maxwell Davies at Theater Dortmund, as well as the world premiere of “Faces” by Georg zum Kley at Kölner Künstler:innen Theater. As founder and director of the theatre group acting up productions, she wrote and directed her own youth theatre pieces at the intersection of the stage and digital worlds.

In 2014, she took over as director of the Kinderoper Köln, sharpening and further developing its artistic profile. Her most important directing work included “The Ring of the Nibelung” in a version for young audiences (“Das Rheingold” 2017, “Die Walküre” 2018, “Siegfried” 2019 and “Götterdämmerung” 2021). With these productions, Oper Köln was invited to perform in Yongin, South Korea, in 2022. She also directed the commissioned works “Die Heinzelmännchen von Köln” by Ingfried Hoffmann (2016), “Die Geschichte vom Fuchs, der den Verstand verlor” by Johannes Wulff-Woesten (2021), the mobile children’s operas “Irgendwie Anders” and “Marla, die Maifliege” by Ralf Gscheidle (2017/2021/2026), as well as “Pin Kaiser und Fip Husar” by Frank Engel (2019). Further productions at the Kinderoper included “Die Zauberflöte für Jung und Alt” (2019), “Die Kluge” by Carl Orff (2016) and “King Arthur” after Henry Purcell (2015).

As project director, she worked with music theatre educator Katja Fischer to develop the community opera “Superheldennormalos”, which received its world premiere in 2025. 130 children and young people between the ages of 9 and 19 conceived, wrote and composed their own opera, which was then brought to the stage by pupils together with singers from Oper Köln and the Gürzenich Orchestra.

In 2019, Oper Köln received the OPER! Award for Best Education Programme for the work of the Kinderoper and its theatre education programme.

In 2020, thanks to funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s “Neue Wege” programme, the Kinderoper was expanded into an independent division with its own team. Since then, Brigitta Gillessen has also been responsible for the administrative management of the Kinderoper. In 2024, she completed a continuing education programme in Theatre Management at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

In the 2025/26 season, Brigitta Gillessen directed Oper Köln’s first inclusive music theatre production: “Freikugeln – Der Freischütz in 5 Dimensionen”. In the production, Deaf actors and singers tell the story of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera in an unconventional way, with German Sign Language used on an equal footing with spoken language and music.

In the 2026/27 season, she will direct “Der König verschenkt was”, a work commissioned from Cologne-based composer Philipp Matthias Kaufmann and award-winning author Martin Baltscheit, which will receive its world premiere on 10 October 2026 on the stage of the newly built, unique Kinderoper at Offenbachplatz.