Joël Lauwers

Biography

Joël Lauwers, director and designer, was born in Brussels, Belgium. After completing studies in Music (Cello), Painting and History of Art, Joel Lauwers begins his career in 1988 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels as assistant-director. He also worked eight seasons at the Salzburg Festival, under the direction of Gérard Mortier. He completed his experience working many years with Luc Bondy, Karl-Ernst and Ursel Herrmann and occasionally with other famous directors, Peter Sellars, Luca Ronconi and others. In 1994, Joël Lauwers creates his first opera staging : Il Trionfo dell’Onore (Alessandro Scarlatti) in Liege and in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. Since then Joel Lauwers has staged numerous productions: The Love for Three Oranges (Prokofiev) and Idoménéo (Mozart) in La Monnaie. For Opera-Irland in Dublin, he directed The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach) and a highly praised Salome ( R.Strauss) ; for the Festival of Salzburg, with Sir Charles Mackerras conducting, he staged Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) and, again in Liege, Der Schauspieldirektor ( Mozart) and Prima la Musica poi le Parole (Salieri). Joel Lauwers has been invited to Copenhagen for Carmen (Bizet), conducted by Manfred Honneck, to St-Gallen in Switzerland for Simon Boccanegra (Verdi) and to Saarbrücken in Germany for a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro. In France, Joel Lauwers has staged Tosca and Gianni Schicchi (Puccini) for the Festival of Gigondas, and Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) for the Opera de Nice and also opened a new Festival of Operetta in Montpellier, France, with La Belle Hélene (Offenbach). In Greece, Thessalonica, he has directed Rigoletto and a new creation of Le Nozze di Figaro. Along with his work in Opera, Joel Lauwers also staged several Musicals : in France and on tour in Europe : "Ali Baba", and in Belgium, the Brodway Hits " Sound of Music" and "Annie". For the last two, he also designed the sets. Recently, he directed a new successful production of Carmen in Braunschweig, Germany, with sets by Helmut Stürmer. Joel Lauwers is now a regular guest in Japan where he created the staging and designed the sets for Die Walküre (Wagner) for the Theater Bunka-Kaikan of Tokyo, as well as Capriccio (Strauss) for the Nissay Theatre, also in Tokyo. This last production was nominated by Japanese specialised Press as one of the best ten productions presented in 2009. Update: October 2010