Moshe Leiser

Belgian director Moshe Leiser and his creative partner Patrice Caurier made their Royal Opera debuts in 2000 with La Cenerentola and have since directed Madama Butterfly, Hamlet, Il turco in Italia, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Hansel and Gretel and Maria Stuarda for The Royal Opera, all created in collaboration with set designer Christian Fenouillat, costume designer Agostino Cavalca and lighting designer Christophe Forey. 

Leiser was born in Antwerp. He began his collaboration with Caurier in 1983 with a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opéra de Lyon. Productions since include Giovanna d’Arco (La Scala, Milan), Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Jenufa and Don Giovanni (Angers-Nantes Opéra), Der Ring des Nibelungen, Don Carlo, Der Rosenkavalier, Pelléas et Mélisande and Wozzeck (Geneva), The Nose and Werther (Opéra de Lausanne), Hamlet (Metropolitan Opera, New York), the world premiere of Dalbavie’s Gesualdo (Zürich), Les Fiançailles au couvent, Ariane et Barbe-bleue, Lucia di Lammermoor and L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Opéra de Lyon), Iphigénie en Tauride, Carmen, Mazepa and Leonore (Welsh National Opera), Eugene Onegin (Mariinsky Theatre), Teseo (Theater an der Wien), Die Zauberflöte (Vienna State Opera), Il trovatore (Essen), Norma (Salzburg Festival, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Zürich, Edinburgh and Baden-Baden), Rossini’s Otello and L’italiana in Algeri (Salzburg Festival), L’equivoco stravagante (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro) and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Spoleto Festival). They have also designed many productions for the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, including La clemenza di Tito, Armide and Dialogues des Carmélites. 

Awards include the Prix de la Critique (2012) for Jenufa, a BAFTA award for WNO’s Mazepa, the 2014 Best New Production Award at the International Opera Awards for Norma and the Cannes Film Festival Fipa d’Or award for their film of L’Enfant et les sortilèges.