Laurent
Pelly

Laurent Pelly is one of France’s most sought-after directors in both theatre and opera. The French repertoire holds a special place in his work. He designs the costumes for almost all of his productions and occasionally also creates the set designs. His production of Offenbach’s Le roi carotte at the Opéra de Lyon earned him International Opera Awards in 2016 in the categories Best Director and Rediscovered Work of the Year. Together with Agathe Mélinand, he served as Artistic Director of the Théâtre national de Toulouse from 2008 to 2018, following his tenure as Head of Design at the Centre Dramatique National des Alpes from 1997 to 2007.

Among the highlights of his work in Toulouse are Victor Hugo’s Mille Francs de Récompense—which he also staged at the Odéon in Paris and for which he was named Best Director and received the award for Best Set Design in the 2011 French Critics’ Awards—Hanokh Levin’s Funérailles d’hiver, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Carlo Gozzi’s L’Oiseau vert, which received the 2015 award for Best Scenic Elements and was revived at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in 2018.

His recent productions include Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Philadelphia and the Vienna State Opera, Falstaff at Teatro Real Madrid in a co-production with La Monnaie / De Munt and the Opéra national de Bordeaux, as well as Offenbach’s Barbe Bleue for the Opéra de Lyon.

He directed Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a production that was also invited to the Edinburgh International Festival in 2018, Candide at Santa Fe Opera, and his celebrated production of Massenet’s Cendrillon, with which he returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Further notable productions include Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma! at the Opéra de Lyon and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’or, a co-production between La Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Real Madrid, and the Opéra national de Lorraine, for which he received the French Critics’ Award Prix de l’Europe Francophone in 2017.

He also directed Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges and L’Heure espagnole for Glyndebourne and the Saito Kinen Festival; during the 2015/16 season, this production was also presented at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Laurent Pelly is widely regarded as an Offenbach specialist. His imaginative productions of La Vie parisienne, La Belle Hélène, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, La Périchole, Orphée aux enfers, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann have been seen around the world.

His productions of Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera achieved international success, as did Manon at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; Die sieben Todsünden at the Opéra national de Paris; Robert le diable at the Royal Opera House and the Grand Théâtre de Genève; Hänsel und Gretel at the Glyndebourne Festival; and Cendrillon, originally created for Santa Fe Opera and subsequently presented at the Royal Opera House in London, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, La Monnaie in Brussels, and the Opéra de Lille.

Other significant productions include Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera at the Comédie-Française, Poulenc’s La Voix humaine and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the Opéra de Lyon, Verdi’s La traviata in Santa Fe and at the Teatro Regio di Torino, and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the Saito Kinen Festival and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

In the 2026/27 season, Laurent Pelly will direct The Bartered Bride at Oper Köln, a production created in collaboration with Teatro Real Madrid, the Opéra national de Lyon, and the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie.