Gilles Rico

Originally from Marseille, he studied music and philosophy before doing a PhD in medieval philosophy at the University of Oxford. At the same time as his university career, he turned to opera directing, first working as an assistant for various European opera houses and festivals. He collaborated in particular with directors like Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, Joël Pommerat, Tom Cairns, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Jérôme Deschamps, Andreas Homoki, David McVicar, James Gray, Damiano Michieletto and Katie Mitchell. In 2016, he directed the world premiere of Maria Republica by François Paris at Angers Nantes Opéra, a show which received the Critics' Prize. He also staged A Dinner with Jacques, a show around Offenbach produced by the Opéra Comique and the Musée d'Orsay and then toured in France, Tistou les Pouces Verts by Henri Sauguet at the Opéra de Rouen, Die Entführung aus dem Serail von Mozart (staging) at the Philharmonie de Paris, Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot at the Opéra de Lausanne and Les Petites Noces after Mozart at the Opéra de Rouen, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and on tour in France. As a librettist, he wrote the libretto for La Princesse Légère by Violetta Cruz, commissioned by the Opéra Comique and the Opéra de Lille, and the libretto for the chamber opera Les Rois mages by Fabian Panisello, for which he signed also the staging in Madrid, Nice, Berlin and Tel Aviv. Among his projects are the cover of Cendrillon at the Opéra Comique, L'Auberge du Cheval Blanc at the Opéra de Lausanne, Così fan tutte with the English Touring Opera as well as a project around Rameau at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. He made his debut at the OnR

Update May 2020