LOUISA MULLER
STAGE DIRECTOR
Heralded by Opera News for her “absorbing, provocative staging,” this season Louisa Muller makes debuts creating new productions of Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North, The Bartered Bride for Irish National Opera, and Puts and Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree for Music Academy of the West. She returns to Garsington Opera to revive her acclaimed production of La traviata and acts as Associate Director of Bartlett Sher’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird for its tour across the United Kingdom and Ireland and its return to the West End. Last season, she revived her production of La traviata in her debut with Dallas Opera and The Turn of the Screw for her return to Santa Fe Opera, as well as directing a new production of Dialogues des Carmélites for The Juilliard School and the National Opera Studio residency at Opera North. Future seasons see her European debut of a new production of Der kleine Prinz for the MusikTheater an der Wien, her new production debut with the Metropolitan Opera, and a return to Garsington Opera, as well as revivals of her productions with Canadian Opera Company and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Last season, she returned to Garsington Opera to direct Platée and made debuts with Santa Fe Opera with La traviata for the company’s opening night and Pinchgut Opera with Rinaldo, all new productions.
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Louisa is a recent International Opera Awards finalist in the Director and Newcomer categories. Her recent production of The Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera received the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award and was named by The Guardian as one of the Top Ten Classical Music Performances of the Year. She subsequently returned to Garsington for a new production of Platée. She created new productions of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers for Houston Grand Opera, La traviata for Santa Fe Opera, and Rinaldo for Pinchgut Opera in widely praised debuts.
She received rich critical acclaim for her staging of Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic, which the New York Times called “riveting…a remarkable evening of music theater” and named among its list of the Best Classical Music Performances of the Year. She has created new productions of Amadigi di Gaula for Boston Baroque and Philharmonia Baroque and The Rake’s Progress for The Juilliard School. In addition, she directed concert stagings of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival and Don Giovanni at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp.
She has been a frequent and beloved presence at Wolf Trap Opera, where she has directed new productions of Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, The Rape of Lucretia, Tosca, and Roméo et Juliette.​ She has led productions of Tannhäuser and Don Carlo with Los Angeles Opera and La traviata for Minnesota Opera and has returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to direct Madama Butterfly, La bohème, and Tosca. She has also directed revivals of Madama Butterfly for Opera Queensland, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Houston Grand Opera. As a former member of the Metropolitan Opera's directing staff, she helmed revivals of Don Giovanni, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, and L'elisir d'amore.
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Invested in the dramatic training for singers, she has twice directed the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Rising Stars concert featuring its Ryan Opera Center and has collaborated with those singers in individual dramatic coaching. She has given masterclasses and dramatic coaching at the National Opera Studio in London, Houston Grand Opera Studio and Young Artists Vocal Academy, Wolf Trap Opera, Baylor University, University of Wisconsin, Lawrence University, and the University of Texas and has been a faculty member of the Scuola di Belcanto in Urbania, Italy. She has directed scenes programs for Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera Studio, Wolf Trap Opera Studio, and Rice University.
She holds degrees from Lawrence University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Certificate in Cultural Management from the University of Vienna. She is a citizen of the United States and Germany and makes her home in London.