Jeanne Pansard-Besson was a finalist in the ninth European Opera-directing Prize and a semi-finalist in the Ring Award 2017. She has directed new productions including La Tragédie de Carmen at the Royal Academy of Music in London, La Scala di Seta, the latter touring the UK and Italy. She recently directed Scottish Opera’s Opera Highlights, a new production of Don Pasquale at the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg/Neue Oper Freiburg (NOF), scenes at the Royal Academy of Music and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers at the Vache Baroque Festival (UK). Upcoming directing projects this year include Hänsel und Gretel with HGO Hampstead Garden Opera in London.
She has worked with directors such as Mariame Clément, Laurent Pelly, Simon McBurney, Irina Brook, Michael Boyd, Nicola Raab, for companies including Glyndebourne Festival, the Royal Opera House, Opéra Comique, Garsington Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Lorraine, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Graz.
As a librettist she is writing and developing a new opera in collaboration with composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, with the support of the National Opera Studio, the APGRD and TORCH at the University of Oxford, as well as King’s College London (including workshops and performances).
The book based on her PhD in Classics from the University of Cambridge, The Imagination of Rome’s Foundation Myths, will be published by Routledge this year.
Her documentary film about a company of puppeteers in Cambodia, The Shadows of Kok Thlok, was selected by several international festivals.
She is fluent in French, English, German and Italian.
Photo: Louise Kemény.