Laurent Pelly
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Laurent Pelly (born 1962) is a French opera and theatre director. At the age of 18, he founded the Compagnie Théâtrale du Pélican which, since 1982, has been co-directed by Agathe Mélinand . From 1994, he became associated with Le Centre Dramatique National des Alpes - Grenoble (the National Dramatic Center of the Alps) in Grenoble, and has been its director since 1997.
In over twenty years, Pelly has staged more than fifty theatrical productions, now expanding further into directing opera productions. In the six years after 1998 in particular, he directed (with Marc Minkowski as conductor), productions for the Opéra National de Paris of La Belle Hélène, the Tales of Hoffmann, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, all by Jacques Offenbach, Rameau’s Platée, and Ariadne auf Naxos in addition to others. He also designs the costumes for all his productions.
In late 2005 Pelly directed five opera by Offenbach in a mini-festival for the Opéra National de Lyon. In addition to a staged presentation of Les Contes d'Hoffmann, there were concert performances of Les Fées du Rhin, M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . ., Un Petit Voyage dans la Lune, and L'Ile de Tulipatan. Increasingly, Pelly is becoming known in London, Vienna, New York, Amsterdam (for The Love for Three Oranges), Barcelona and many other houses in both Europe and the United States.
Specifically, he has directed Offenbach’s La belle Hélène for the Santa Fe Opera in 2003, which was described as "a colorful, zippy production....that included a flying bed, a shower taken onstage, and enough energy to light up Los Alamos"[1]. For the company’s 50th Anniversary season in 2006, Pelly directed Jules Massenet’s seldom staged Cendrillon, (Cinderella), where "his production was attuned to the multiple layers of the opera and added an interesting one of his own [2]. He will return to Santa Fe in 2007 with a new production of Rameau's Platée. Other planned productions in 2007 include La fille du regiment for Vienna and London (with Natalie Dessay) and La voix humaine for Lyon.
As stage director, many of Pelly’s productions have been filmed and have appeared on French television. Several are available on DVDs.
[edit] References
- ^ Smith, Craig, "Cinderella: la magie before midnight", (interview with Pelly in The Santa Fe New Mexican, 14 July 2006)
- ^ Simon Williams, "Reviews from Around the World: Santa Fe", Opera News, November 2006
