Nicolas Joel Director

Biography

Nicolas Joel was born in 1953 in Paris.
In 1973, he was recruited by the Opéra du Rhin as assistant stage director, a position he held until 1978 in Strasbourg, at the Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals and at the San Francisco Opera.
He began his directing career in 1979 with a production of The Ring for the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon. In 1981, he directed Samson et Dalila with Shirley Verrett and Placido Domingo in San Francisco, then Aida with Luciano Pavarotti in San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto. He staged a second Ring in Wiesbaden, Aida in Vienna directed by L. Maazel, La Voix humaine, Ernani and Parsifal in San Francisco, Eugene Onegin, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in Amsterdam, Rigoletto and La Traviata in Zurich, Tosca in Lausanne for José Van Dam's debut in Scarpia...
In 1994, he made his La Scala Milan debut with La Rondine, then revived Roméo et Juliette at Covent Garden in London and staged Carmen at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. In 1995, he staged Faust in San Francisco, then made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1996 with a new production of Andrea Chénier (with Luciano Pavarotti in the title role). In 1998, Nicolas Joel was back at the Chicago Opera for Les Pêcheurs de perles, at Madrid's Teatro Real for Un ballo in maschera and at the Metropolitan Opera for Lucia di Lammermoor. In 1999, he staged a new production of Manon at La Scala in Milan. He also revived Werther and Samson et Dalila in Los Angeles, Roméo et Juliette in Chicago and at Covent Garden and Manon in Madrid (2000). In 2002, he presented a new production of La Rondine at Covent Garden.
On French stages, he directed, amongst other works, Roméo et Juliette, Turandot and Thaïs in Nancy (revived at the Opéra Comique in Paris and at the Théâtre du Capitole in 1988), Debussy's La Damoiselle élue and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Jessye Norman at the Paris Opera, Faust and the world premiere of Montségur by Marcel Landowski in Toulouse, Andrea Chénier at both the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon.
At the Paris Opera he presented a new production of Un ballo in maschera with Luciano Pavarotti in 1992, which was broadcast on a giant screen on the Place de la Bastille.
In 1987, Nicolas Joel was invited to the Chorégies d'Orange for Der fliegende Holländer and returned for Nabucco (1989 and 1994), Gounod's Faust (1990 and 2008), Aïda (1991 and 2001), Carmen (1998), Roméo et Juliette (2002), Otello (2003) and La Bohème (2005).
From 1990 to 2009, Nicolas Joel was director of the Théâtre du Capitole. There, he directed many new productions: Falstaff, Il Trovatore, Elektra, Eugene Onegin, then Rigoletto and Roméo et Juliette with Roberto Alagna. For the reopening of the Capitole in 1996, he presented Louise and Werther with Roberto Alagna in the title role.
Among his Toulouse productions, Boris Godunov, Die Walküre, La Forza del destino, Louise, Hamlet (the latter two productions were revived at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet), Das Rheingold, Mignon, Otello, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and The Magic Flute were particularly noteworthy.
In 2004, after the renovation of the stage house, he reopened the Théâtre du Capitole with Jenufa and directed Don Carlo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Tristan und Isolde.
In 2007-2008, after Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys, Nicolas Joel directed a new production of Der Rosenkavalier and revived his production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann which had premiered at Madrid's Teatro Real in 2006. His latter engagements included Daphne and Faust in Vienna, Aïda and Le Cid in Zurich, Rienzi in Leipzig and La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera.

Immerse in the Paris Opera universe

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