Richard Jones (director)

For the American film director, see F. Richard Jones.

Richard Jones
Born	7 June 1953 (1953-06-07) London, England
Occupation	Theatre director

Richard Jones (born 7 June 1953) is a British theatre and opera director.

Biography

Early life

Jones was born in London, and studied at the University of Hull and London. After working as a jazz musician, he spent 1982-83 on a bursary working with Scottish Opera and the Citizens Theatre.

Career

Richard Jones's earliest productions were for the Batignano Festival, Opera Northern Ireland and Opera 80. He came to prominence in 1987 with the world première of Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera for Kent Opera and a production of Mignon at the Wexford Festival.

Opera productions include The Gambler, L’heure Espagnole & Gianni Schicchi, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Royal Opera House); Lohengrin (Munich), Skin Deep (Opera North), Falstaff, Macbeth, Jonathan Dove’s Flight and Euryanthe (Glyndebourne); Rusalka (Copenhagen); Billy Budd (Frankfurt); The Fiery Angel (Brussels); The Queen Of Spades and Olivier Award-winning Hansel and Gretel (WNO); Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Love for Three Oranges, Die Fledermaus, David Sawer’s opera From Morning to Midnight, Lulu and The Trojans (ENO); Pelleas and Melisande (Opera North, ENO); The Cunning Little Vixen, Der fliegende Holländer and Jenufa (Amsterdam); Julius Caesar (Opernwelt Production of the Year) and The Midsummer Marriage (Munich); L’enfant et les sortilèges & Der Zwerg and Juliette (Paris Opera); Un ballo in maschera and La boheme (Bregenz Festival); Wozzeck (Berlin and WNO).

Theatre includes Annie Get Your Gun, The Good Soul of Szechuan, Six Characters Looking For an Author and Hobson’s Choice (Young Vic); Rumpelstiltskin (Birmingham Contemporary Music); Too Clever by Half (Olivier Award), The Illusion (Evening Standard Award) and A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic); Into the Woods (Olivier and Evening Standard Awards) in the West End, Black Snow (American Repertory Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well (Public Theatre, New York); Holy Mothers (Ambassadors/Royal Court Theatre); La Bête (West End, Broadway: Tony nomination); Titanic (Musical) Wrong Mountain (Broadway); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company); Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Tales from the Vienna Woods by Odon von Horvath in a new version by David Harrower (National Theatre).

Richard’s productions of The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for the Royal Opera House and The Trojans (2004) for ENO won the Olivier Award for Best Opera production in 2005. In 2000 his production of Hansel and Gretel for WNO, won the Olivier Award for best new Opera. In 2000 Richard was awarded Designer of the Year with Antony McDonald for Un ballo in maschera in Germany. He was nominated for a South Bank Show award for his production of The Queen of Spades at WNO and for an Olivier Award for Pelleas and Melisande at ENO. He was awarded the Barclays/TMA Award 2001 for The Queen of Spades at WNO and again in 2006 for Wozzeck at WNO. He has also won the Evening Standard Award for Der Ring Des Nibelungen at the Royal Opera House.

In 2011, Richard will be directing Government Inspector at Warwick Arts Centre and London's Young Vic Theatre. The production features Julian Barratt and Doon Mackichan. For the Bavarian State Opera Munich Richard Jones will be directing Jacques Offenbach´s Les contes d´Hoffmann, due to premier on October 31st 2011.

References

• Warrack, John, and Ewan West (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869164-5. 
• Who's Who in British Opera ed. Nicky Adam (Scolar Press, 1993) ISBN 0 859 67 894 6

External links

• Richard Jones at the Internet Broadway Database
• Interview with Jones at the National Theatre
• Official Maury Yeston website