Jorge Lavelli Director

Born in Buenos Aires, Jorge Lavelli has been a French citizen since 1977. A director of both theatre and opera, his first productions explored the contemporary repertoire. He introduced the theatre of Witold Gombrowicz to French audiences, directed new works by Arrabal, Copi, Obaldia, Handke, Fuentes, Pinter, Rezvani and Athayde and staged Panizza, O’Neill, Bulatovic and Boulgakov, without neglecting classics like Seneca, Calderón, Corneille, Goethe, Chekhov, Claudel, Lorca and Shakespeare.
In 1969, in Avignon, he invented a new form of “musical theatre” with Orden by Pierre Bourgeade and Girolamo Arrigo and began another chapter in his career dedicated to opera. He has worked at the most prestigious opera houses in the world, staging works by 20th century composers like Stravinsky, Bartók, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Janácek, Von Einem, Sutermeister, Ohana, Nono and Liebermann as well as the classics: Faust, Pelléas et Mélisande, Madame Butterfly, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Œdipus Rex, Dardanus, Salomé and Ariodante at the Paris Opera where he also directed La Céléstine by Maurice Ohana and Medea by Rolf Liebermann. Founder of the Théâtre national de la Colline and from 1987 to 1996 its director, he chose to dedicate it to new works and to 20th playwrights. He directed the world premier of Charles Chaynes’ opera Cecilia in Monte Carlo in 2000, Siroe by Handel (Venice 2000), L’Ombre de Venceslao by Copi (Théâtre du Rond-Point, 2001), Mr Peters’ Connections by Arthur Miller (Théâtre de l’Atelier, 2002), Babel 46 by Xavier Montsalvatge (Teatro Real in Madrid, 2002), The Flying Dutchman (Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, 2003), La Hija del Aire by Calderón (Madrid, 2004), Merlin oder das würst Land by Tankred Dorst (Festival Les Nuits de Fourvière, 2005), Chemin du ciel (2007), Le Garçon du dernier rang (2009) et Lettres d’amour à Staline (2011), three plays by Juan Mayorga, a young Spanish playwright (Théâtre de la Tempête), Œdipus Rex by Sophocles (Mérida Festival, 2009), L’Avare by Molière (Madrid, 2010), Polieukt by Zygmunt Krauze (world premier Warsaw, 2010 and Capitole de Toulouse, 2011), Rienzi (Capitole de Toulouse, 2012), Idomeneo (Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 2014), L’Ombre de Venceslao, an opera by Martin Matalon based on Copi (world premier, Rennes Opera, 2016, Capitole de Toulouse, 2017) and Jenůfa in Santiago in Chili (2017).