Stage director Rodula Gaitanou is becoming internationally recognised for her intense, character driven and stylish productions. Rodula is a former member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and lives in London. She was shortlisted in the category “Director of the Year” at the 2019 International Opera Awards.
Recent engagements include Chausson’s Le roi Arthus at Tiroler Festspiele Erl, La Traviata for Den Norske Opera, Oslo, Rusalka for Opera Royal de Wallonie, Liège, Nabucco for Savonlinna Opera Festival, 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 past season also saw revivals 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 at Opera Theatre of St Louis with Carmen and returned to the States in the 23/24 Season with a new production of La Bohème for Minnesota Opera. 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.
In the 24/25 season, Rodula will direct a production of La Forza del Destino at Greek National Opera and a further run of Rodula’s highly acclaimed production of La Bohème at Malmö Opera.
Nominations include 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 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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Verdi: Nabucco
Savolinna Opera Festival, July 2024
With its Greek authors, director Rodula Gaitanou and stage director
Takisin - a stage name and one spelt with a lower case initial - the Babylonian opera has found a whole new point of view. The performance as an interpretation, visual and stage events as a whole is 'poor' theater at its finest. The staging, made from recycled bottles, is stunningly well done. Nabucco in full scale is a treat for all the senses. Without compromising ideas.
Anne Välinoro, Rondo
I dare to predict: this summer's new production of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Nabucco, will be the new Aida - the 80s version that everyone around Finland was almost ecstatic to see again and again.
The Greek pair Rodula Gaitanou and takis have been working together for a long time [...] because they think along the same lines. They both also want to say something weighty, not just illustrate old works.
Director Rodula Gaitanou uses the choir with skill. The 80 or so singers transform themselves into a group of eco-warriors, sometimes cheering each other on, sometimes forming a familiar chain, sometimes smiling with determination, sometimes into senior, sputtering technocrats.
The audience fell in love with the new production right away. The applause continued for a long time. The whole is harmonious and extraordinarily beautiful, and not only that. The theme of this interpretation, saving nature, is also true on stage. Now we don't just talk beautifully in theory, we do what we talk about.
Eastern Savo
Director Rodula Gaitanou and choreographer Lauren Poulton bring an entertainingly caricatured grandfatherly energy to the technocrats portrayed by the chorus, using proverbial aids as interpretive tools - the various walking sticks and canes that rich old people use to hobble away.
Samuil Tiikkaya, Helsinkin Sanomat
La Bohème
Minnesota Opera (May 2024)
The incarnation that opened Saturday night at St. Paul’s Ordway Music Theatre is the most entertaining and energetic “La Bohème” among the half-dozen I’ve experienced, and quite possibly the most well sung, as well. Boasting a very creative design scheme and performers throwing themselves into their roles enough to inspire tears both onstage and in the house, it’s a production ideal for audience of all experience levels.
… Director Rodula Gaitnaou has clearly convinced her cast to tap into their sense of fun, for these “bohemians” are a lighthearted lot, laughing at life and giving the impression that they’d be in a celebratory mood even if our story didn’t begin on Christmas Eve. … The audience is treated to the most vibrant Parisian street scene I’ve found in a “La Bohème”. There’s a little subplot going on in every direction you look, even as our eyes and ears are drawn to the cauldron of desire and jealousy brewing between Rodolfo’s painter pal Marcello and the proudly promiscuous Musetta.
Rob Hubbard, Star Tribune
Giacomo Puccini’s triumphant opera, La bohème has finally returned to the MN Opera in a beautifully staged production…
Broadway World
An overall incredible production
Lavender Magazine
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
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