Nicolas Joel - director

Nicolas Joel has been Director of the Opéra National de Paris from 2009 to 2014.

He was Assistant Director at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg from 1973 until 1978, then at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals as well as the San Francisco Opera. In 1979, he made his debut with a production of the Ring at the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon.

He has been Artistic Director of the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.

His vast activity includes successful collaborations with the world's most prestigious opera houses: Wiener Staatsoper (Aida conducted by Lorin Maazel); San Francisco Opera (Samson et Dalila with Shirley Verrett and Placido Domingo, Aida with Luciano Pavarotti, Ernani and Parsifal); Royal Theatre of Copenhagen (Lohengrin); Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Ring); De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and Stora Teatern in Gothenburg (Eugene Onegin, Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci); Opernhaus Zürich (Rigoletto, La Traviata and La Forza del Destino); Theater und Philarmonie in Essen (Salome); Theater Bremen (Boris Godounov and I Capuleti e i Montecchi); and Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne (Gluck's Orphée et Euridice and Tosca, produced for the debut of José Van Dam in the role of Scarpia). In 1994, he obtained a great success with Puccini's La Rondine at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he was invited again in 1999 for a new production of Manon. He also staged Roméo et Juliette at the Royal Opera House in London and Carmenat the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires.

Other important productions include: Aida for the reopening of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (April 1998); Un Ballo in Maschera at the Teatro Real in Madrid; Roméo et Juliette, Turandot and Thaïs at the Opera Theatre in Nancy; La Gioconda and I Vespri Siciliani at the Opéra in Montpellier; a remarkable production of Parsifal at the Opéra de Nice; Andrea Chénier at the Opéra du Rhin and Opéra de Lyon; Un Ballo in Maschera with Luciano Pavarotti, Debussy's La Demoiselle Elue and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Jessye Norman at the Opéra de Paris.

He signed several prestigious productions at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse: Boris Godunov with José Van Dam; Die Walküre with James Morris; Hamlet with Natalie Dessay, Thomas Hampson and José Van Dam; Das Rheingold and Mignon with Susan Graham; Roméo et Juliette and Werther both with Roberto Alagna as the title role; and Charpentier's Louise.

Mr. Joel's recent engagements include: a new production of La Rondine at the Royal Opera House in London, also performed at the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York; Roméo et Juliette and Otello at the Chorégies of Orange; Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; Falstaff at the Arena di Verona; Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Teatro Regio in Turin; La Forza del Destino at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Rigoletto with the Japan Opera Foundation; I Vespri Siciliani at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, then toured in Japan and in Naples; La Forza del Destino at the Teatro Comunale in Florence then on tour in Japan; Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Chicago.

Plans include: Werther at the New National Theater in Tokyo.