London-based, Greek stage director Rodula Gaitanou was shortlisted in the category “Director of the Year” at the 2019 International Opera Awards.
Recent engagements include Vanessa for Spoleto Festival USA, Andrea Chenier for St Gallen and Madama Butterfly for Teatro Grande Brescia. Other highlights include Rodula’s widely acclaimed production of Ariadne auf Naxos for Göteborgsoperan in Sweden, revived at Opera North in 2023; The Barber of Seville at Göteborgsoperan; La clemenza di Tito for Bergen National Opera, a revival of her acclaimed production of La Traviata for Opera Holland Park; Guillaume Tell at Victorian Opera, Australia; Lucia de Lammermoor at Opera Hedeland, Denmark; a widely acclaimed production of Barber’s Vanessa starring Rosalind Lowright in the title role; a double bill of verismo rarities L’oracolo/La Mala Vita for Wexford Opera Festival; Queen of Spades for Opera Holland Park; Pagliacci for Teatro Nacional São Carlos in Portugal; La Cenerentola for Teatro Verdi di Trieste; Tosca for Xi’an Concert Hall, China; and Cosi fan tutte and La Cenerentola for the Greek National Opera.
This season includes productions of La Traviata for Den Norske Opera, Oslo, Rusalka for Opera Royal de Wallonie, Liège, Nabucco for Savonlinna Opera Festival, La boheme for Minnesota Opera and Malmö Opera and a revival of her production of Madama Butterfly for Rahvusooper Estonia and Teatro Sociale di Como, Fondazione Teatro Fraschini di Pavia, Fondazione Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli di Cremona, Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo, Teatro del Giglio di Lucca.
Rodula made her American debut with Carmen at Opera Theatre of St Louis and her Austrian debut with Le roi Arthus by Chausson at Tiroler Festspiele Erl. She directed a celebrated new production of Un Ballo in Maschera for Opera Holland Park, a new production of Don Quichotte at Wexford Festival Opera, and made her German debut with Un Ballo in Maschera at Oldenburgisches Staatstheater.
Rodula was nominated for two Helpmann Awards (Australia 2013) in the "Best Opera Director" and "Best Opera Production" categories for her ROH production of L'isola disabitata presented by the Hobart Baroque Festival. Her productions of Barber’s Vanessa and Massenet's Don Quichotte at Wexford were nominated in the Irish Times Theatre Awards in the “Best Opera” category (Ireland 2017 and 2020). Her Opera Hedeland production of Lucia di Lammermoor was nominated for "Best Opera Production" in the CPH Awards (Denmark, 2019).
Rodula is a former member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She trained as a violinist at the Mousikoi Orizontes Conservatory in Athens, studied Musicology at La Sorbonne University in Paris, Opera Staging at Paris 8 - Saint Denis University and joined the Laboratoire d'Etude du Mouvement of the prestigious International Theatre School Jacques Lecoq.
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Rusalka
Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège (January 2024)
The first key to this success is the particularly successful production of Rodula Gaitanou. An ingenious device allows a clear visualization of the different spaces: a large ring marks the dividing line between the worlds, while silver curtains separate humans from aquatic creatures. In the garden, an elegant ornate iron spiral staircase also allows the characters to evolve vertically. The staging, already very beautiful, is completed by superb costumes and, in Act I, by videos evoking the undulating surface of the water, through which an immense moon shines through. Under its light, the undines twirl in their flowing outfits, the three singers mingling with the dancers to illustrate the bubbling of the waves.
Julia Le Brun, Diapason
A real staging challenge, the versatility of the underwater movements requires a certain amount of magic. Director, Rodula Gaitanou confronts this scenic tour de force with a symbolist and poetic décor. … Generous, powerful and evocative, this Rusalka received a deserved ovation from the Liège public, always so receptive.
Soline Heurtebise, Olyrix
Antonín Dvořák’s most important operatic work finally enters the repertoire at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, where strangely Rusalka had never been performed, and it does so with a much-applauded new production by the Greek director Rodula Gaitanou.
Alma Torretta, Il Giornale della Musica
Rodula Gaitanou has created a very wise production at the Royal Opera of Wallonia-Liège which makes the undine Rusalka the heroine of an austere and symbolist fable.
David Verdier, Altamusica
Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák created in Prague in 1901 had never before been performed at the Opéra de Wallonie-Liège. It is now done, and done well. … It must be said that Rodula Gaitanou’s staging enriches the tale with its scenic images. Beautiful image, relevant and coherent. … The Rusalka enchanted and rejoiced with her tragedy. It is a success.
Stéphane Gilbart, Crescendo
Andrea Chénier, St Gallen
June 2023
The performance of Greek director Rodula Gaitanou is captivating. She manages to clearly structure the opera … with its labyrinthine storylines. … The four acts flow smoothly into each other, sometimes with a single solo performance, sometimes with all the singers and extras. The tempo changes and the color changes of the costumes are part of it as dramaturgical impulses. The piece does not sway back and forth, but develops grippingly towards the finale … The Hatchet falls. Silence in the monastery courtyard. Then warm applause and a standing ovation
Alex Bänninger, Journal21.ch
Since the eponymous hero and numerous other opera characters actually lived, it is only right that director Rodula Gaitanou brings to the stage in her all-round successful production exactly what Uberto Giordano and his librettist Luigi Illica specify in score and libretto.
Marco Aranowicz, Operagazet
Vanessa
Spoleto Festival USA
Gaitanou's elegant production updates the setting to the 1950s and places it in upstate New York, a decision which helps to underline the timelessness of the opera's themes.
James L. Paulk, ArtsATL
Vanessa feels like a wholehearted embrace: bolder and more contemporary with Rodula Gaitanou's daring stage direction ... the loneliness and isolation of its main character resonated more keenly, the effect enhanced because her icy vigil is self imposed.
Perry Tannenbaum, Classical Voice America
Ariadne auf Naxos
Opera North, 21 February 2023
Rodula Gaitanou’s production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos is a hugely entertaining treatment of an opera that brings its fair share of problems to any company... the whole show took wings
Robert Beale, The Arts Desk *****
Rodula Gaitanou’s relocation of Strauss’s opera to Rome’s Cinecittà studios brings many gains...
Some directors fail to link the work’s two parts adequately, but Gaitanou proves remarkably consistent here. We watch the cameras roll as the interaction between drama and harlequinade plays itself out with great subtlety, and routines rehearsed in the Prologue are subsequently seen in full.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian ****
Rodula Gaitanou’s relocation of Strauss’ opera to an Italian film studio produces great entertainment... Simply gleams...
George Hall, The Stage ****
Opera North’s Ariadne auf Naxos, first seen in Gothenburg, is a smart, satirical staging with two vocal set-pieces to die for... effervescent...
Rodula Gaitanou’s ingenious staging for Opera North, first seen in Gothenburg, makes the most of the 1916 version, which places a first act about the chaotic creation of the opera as a prologue to the opera itself.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph ****
Rodula Gaitanou’s ingenious scenario for this co-production… Gaitanou must have micro-directed this multi-talented cast, so compelling was the detail. With Zerbinetta leading the way, Hofmannsthal’s transformation could hardly have been more persuasive…
Martin Dreyer, Opera Magazine
'Carmen'
Opera Theatre of St Louis (May 2022)
Rodula Gaitanou’s inspired guidance, keeps this version of “Carmen” moving at a pleasing pace, allowing the accomplished players to fully exercise their talents.
Mark Bretz, Landue News
Gaitanou’s interpretation breaks away from the trendy projections that have run rampant in theater and opera in recent years in favor of a minimalist set, and more subdued colors. As a result, Bizet’s story of seduction, lust, and betrayal is allowed to breathe fresh air.
Gaitanou has also underscored Bizet’s themes of race, class, and gender without capsizing the production’s uptempo pacing.
Rob Levy, ReviewSTL.com
Le Roi Arthus
Tiroler Festspiele Erl, 23 July 2022
Rodula Gaitanou was extremely successful at engaging the soloists in exciting relationships with each other as well as leading the choir in a masterful way.
Der Opernfreund
Rodula Gaitanou's directorial work strongly encourages intense interaction of all the characters on stage. The focus is clearly not only on the main characters, but extends onto the individual choir members. Static standing around can therefore only be encountered when explicitly used as a special effect.
Wolfgang Wagner, Concerti
La Traviata, Opera Holland Park
(June 2021)
Rodula Gaitanou’s revival of her successful 2018 La Traviata surpasses the original… In 2018, Opera Holland Park enjoyed a major success with Rodula Gaitanou’s minutely observed period staging of Verdi’s classic La Traviata… Gaitanou delineates the society in which thoughtful, sentient courtesan Violetta lives and dies with pinpoint precision… As with Holland Park’s 2019 double bill of Il segreto di Susanna and Iolanta, this is world-class opera.
George Hall, The Stage*****
Rodula Gaitanou's production roars back with splendid singing and emotional conviction… Gaitanou lays a light but skilful hand on a work that, even in non-pandemic times, needs no fancy manipulation from concept merchants impatient of its power and fame… Gaitanou makes the most of the almost panoramic vistas and racetrack lengths the long, shallow set permits her.
Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk*****
La Clemenza di Tito, Bergen National Opera
(March 2021)
A brief word on Bergen National Opera’s thrillingly stylised semi-staging of Mozart’s last opera, La clemenza di Tito… Rodula Gaitanou’s smart, vivid direction — relayed on Zoom from London while the cast rehearsed in Bergen — makes a virtue of austerity, projecting the drama grippingly in an abstract setting of squares marked around an oblong space, representing Tito’s seat of power… An astonishing achievement for one of Europe’s pluckiest small companies.
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times
The result works amazingly well: Gaitanou succeeds in turning [the Grieghallen’s] imposed limitations to her advantage. The work’s complex web of personal and power relationships is made perfectly clear… Gaitanou’s finely integrated staging….
Opera Magazine
...a defiant account of Mozart’s final opera that’s beautifully cast with six Norwegian nationals and intelligently rethought by London-based Rodula Gaitanou from her aborted original plans of a year ago. The result is a triumph of simplicity and clarity, light on pomp and glitter but forensically presented to reflect our times.
Mark Valencia, Backtrack****
Now BNO is back in the Grieg Hall with a version of Mozart's opera that is certainly different from the one originally planned, but which nevertheless works very well, both theatrically and musically. Greek Rodula Gaitanou, who has directed the show on zoom from London, is best known for beautiful, colourful and easily updated versions of 19th century opera classics. With the staging in the Grieg Hall, she has had to work with completely different means to establish a performance that satisfies the official requirements for distance and safety during the pandemic. Gaitanou and her staff have solved these problems by dividing the darkened stage floor into clear, luminous fields with solid spacing… The result has been an elegant, stylized stage image and a tightly choreographed movement pattern - which at the same time makes good sense in relation to the opera's narrative.
Bergens Tidende*****
A stripped back production, a director working remotely and a young Norwegian cast, but Mozart's final opera retains its extraordinary power… Gaitanou's production made a virtue of necessity and concentrated on the interpersonal relationships in a very abstract space. We saw the characters as individuals separated physically as well as mentally from each other. And after all, the engine of the plot is the fact that many of the characters entirely fail to say what they really feel, whilst Tito confuses by being direct and refreshingly honest…. Despite the warnings of it being stripped down, I enjoyed the production immensely. Rodula Gaitanou's interaction with the singers might have been done remotely, but there was a clear sense of thought and deliberation to what was presented. What we experienced was far more than a super-charged concert performance. When things have returned to a semblance of normality I do hope that Bergen National Opera invites Gaitanou and the cast back to revisit the production. They deserve it.
Planet Hugill
Un ballo in Maschera, Staatstheater Oldenburg
(December 2019)
Rodula Gaitanou's production of Un ballo in maschera for the Staatstheater placed the action in Mafia territory, making Riccardo into a capo who was on the radar of the FBI. Set in the 1990s, with costumes by Goje Rostrup, the production was well crafted and essentially conventional, remaining respectful of the material, placing the Riccardo-Amelia-Renato triangle at the centre of the action and tracing Renato's tortuous emotional journey to especially convincing effect.
Wolfgang Denker, Opera Magazine
Don Quichotte, Wexford Festival Opera
October 2019
Wexford’s new production, directed by Rodula Gaitanou with sets and costumes by takis, updates the action into a 20th century in which the well-meaning knight and his ever-devoted squire, Sancho Panza, arrive on a scooter and a moped, both apparently powerless and requiring foot power to get them moving.
The Irish Times, Michael Dervan, 23 October 2019
The young Greek director has created a wonderful, simple staging, aided by takis’ beautiful designs and Simon Corder’s elegant lighting. The set features mobile wooden platforms which turn from town square into bandits’ hideout and, most effectively, into the windmills which Don Quichotte mistakes for giants. Gaitanou tells the tale straight, with a little updating; the knight errant’s horse, Rosinante, is replaced by a bicycle, while his sidekick, Sancho Panza, rides a moped. The opening festival is represented by a circus, with Dulcinée the star attraction...Kudos to Gaitanou for allowing both entr’actes to be performed with the curtain down – not every overture or intermezzo needs to be cluttered with stage action. Her production is a delight and I could have happily watched it all over again as soon as the curtain fell.
Bachtrack, Mark Pullinger, 23 October 2019
Rising star director Rodula Gaitanou joins with designer Takis and conductor Timothy Myers to give Wexford a successful season launch with this entertaining staging of Massenet’s Don Quichotte…The result is a production of one of the French composer’s finest pieces that balances perfectly the mixed package of humour and sentiment ….”
The Stage, George Hall, 25 October 2019
Director Rodula Gaitanou’s handsome production is visually spectacular and effectively balances both the comedy and pathos. The duo sally forth not on steeds but on decrepit motorcycles. Beautifully lit skyscapes frame the middle acts.
The Irish Examiner, Cathy Desmond, 29 October 2019
Though Rodula Gaitanou's staging is rich, with an elaborate happy-making circus-style Act 1, the emotional through-line retains its simplicity.”
The Independent, Katie Hayes, 26 October 2019
Rodula Gaitanou’s direction managed to successfully convey the drama in an engaging and meaningful manner, bring the characters and their relationships alive, while visually delighting the audience, but it also managed to deal with each individual act as a story in its own right, carefully building the tension to its climax, so that there was always a sense of completion as the curtain fell. Moreover, it was achieved without letting go of the underlying dynamics, which peak with Don Quichotte’s death in the final act.
Operawire, Alan Neilson, 4 November, 2019
…the new staging of Don Quichotte. The last, even so, proved to be the festival hit, thanks toRodula Gaitanou’s moving direction of a fine young cast… Gaitanou’s sure-footed staging, in skeletal sets by Takis…proved entirely faithful to a work that should be better known.
The Times, Hugh Canning, 3 November 2019
An attractive and colourful production by Rodula Gaitanou updated the setting agreeably – Quixote’s nag Rosinante became a rusty motor scooter and the windmills were turbines. The performance radiated a pleasant glow…
The Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen, 31 October 2019
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