Biography
Recent directing includes Renard & Mavra (Glyndebourne Jerwood project), Kaspar Hauser: Child of Europe (RSAMD), two new commissions for Five:15 (Scottish Opera), Little England: Scenes from a Small Island (La Monnaie, Brussels), Schoenberg’s Erwartung (Snape Maltings), The Yellow Sofa (Glyndebourne Jerwood project), The Little Sweep (Jubilee Opera), Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne on Tour), the fiftieth anniversary performances of Noye’s Fludde at Orford Church, Hansel & Gretel (Opera North), Brundibar by Hans Krasa (Jubilee Opera), Birtwistle’s Secret Theatre (Royal Academy of Music), The Perfect Woman (Scottish Opera).
He formed Mahogany Opera in 2003 to create site-specific work that explores innovative ways of presenting opera. With Mahogany he has directed and produced Russian Tales: The Fox by Stravinsky and The Bear by Walton at the Village Underground, Shoreditch and the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, Britten’s Curlew River at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh which then toured to East Anglia and Southwark Cathedral, Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Not in Front of the Waiter by Offenbach at the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh and Walton’s The Bear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Currently he is developing a new project with Mahogany called Towards A New Movement working with singers and dancers in combination with new lighting technology that responds live to movement and sound. Events so far have been a workshop and showcase at the Jerwood Space and a staged performance of Berio’s Laborintus II at LSO St Luke’s with Aurora Orchestra. www.mahoganyopera.org.uk
He has worked as assistant director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera North, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Altenmusik and De Nederlandse Opera.
He was brought up in Suffolk where he sang the treble roles in three Britten operas at Snape Maltings. He has a Masters in Philosophy and Systematic Theology from Edinburgh University and has recently returned from Japan and Bali where he studied Noh and Gambuh.
