Joan Font

“The biggest satisfaction is to deliver a performance that conveys emotions, to tell a well-narrated story whose main character is music; also to allow the singer-actors live up their characters with intensity,” says the renowned Spanish director. “Opera is a complex art of thumping dimensions, but at the same time a very delicate art, and its greatest strength lies in the always-fragile human voice. It’s a pleasure to reach the premiere with the confidence of having been able to transmit the concepts of the staging to the team knowing that all its components conform within a whole and a single look. Creating is a risk as much as an adventure, and this is where the passion that gives you strength and satisfaction lies.” Font is founding director of the Barcelona-based company Els Comediants, for which he has created more than 30 productions internationally. His operatic work began with Die Zauberflöte (Gran Teatre del Liceu), Orfeo ed Euridice (Perelada Festival), the zarzuela La Verbena de la Paloma (Granada Festival), and La Cenerentola (Welsh National Opera/Houston Grand Opera/Gran Teatre del Liceu/Grand Théatre de Genève coproduction). He created another coproduction, L’Italiana in Algeri, for Valencia, Madrid, Houston, Bordeaux, and Florence. The success of his Rossini productions has been repeated in Los Angeles, Seattle, Omaha, Toronto, and Washington. In 2010 Font directed a new Zauberflöte for the Auditorio de Murcia. Outside opera he and Els Comediants have recently presented special performances for Shanghai’s World Expo and for the celebration of Hanoi’s Millenium (Vietnam). In 2011 he directed and premiered Persephone in Moscow’s Chekhov Festival, which was later played in Madrid’s Centro Dramático Nacional and Barcelona’s Teatre Lliure.

Lyric Opera debut: La Cenerentola (2015|16)

Last updated: October 4, 2015