Rodula Gaitanou

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).