About
Raised in Germany, Olivia Fuchs moved to London to study drama and train as an actor. She co-founded Cracked Mirror theatre company, later known as Theatre Works, and began her directing work by adapting European classics and new plays.
In all her opera-making Fuchs is interested in examining the complexities of our time through bold physical story-telling. She has developed a psychologically rigorous, physically expressive, and visually poetic style, through which she seeks to highlight the human condition, our relationships to ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Her collaborative approach and physical methodology explore the transformative power of opera to make change.
Fuchs’ many productions and collaborations in the UK include main-house productions with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Scottish Opera as well as acclaimed productions in the Linbury Studio (Royal Opera House). She has directed internationally for Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Opera Australia, Sydney; Opera Oviedo, Spain; Danish National Opera; and works regularly in Germany. In 2008 she was awarded both Helpmann and Green Room awards for ‘Best Direction’ and ‘Best Production in Opera’ for Rusalka at Sydney Opera House.
She also enjoys creating projects in unusual spaces with a wide variety of performers, in particular young people.
List of productions
Eugene Onegin - Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe)
Death in Venice - Benjamin Britten (Welsh National Opera)
La Traviata - Giuseppe Verdi (Irish National Opera)
The Snowmaiden - Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (English Touring Opera)
Falstaff - Giuseppe Verdi (Opera North)
L'Orfeo - Claudio Monteverdi (Longborough Opera Festival)
Der Rosenkavalier - Richard Strauss (Welsh National Opera)
Věc Makropulos - Leoš Janáček (Welsh National Opera)
Grete Minde - Eugen Engel (Magdeburg, Germany)
Cunning Little Vixen - Leoš Janáček (Longborough Opera Festival)
French triple bill - L’Heure Espagnole, L’Enfant Prodigue, Les Illuminations (Royal College of Music)
Dido and Aeneas/La Bella Dormente nel Bosco - Purcell/Resphighi (Guildhall School of Music)
Filmed Scenes (Royal College of Music)
Otello - Giuseppe Verdi (Magdeburg, Germany)
Dead Man Walking - Jake Heggie (Oldenburg, Germany)
Iolanta - Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Opera Holland Park)
Semele - Georg Friedrich Handel (Royal Academy of Music)
Opera Sparks - Henry McPherson, Lewis Murphy and Matthew Whiteside (Scottish Opera)
Der Rosenkavalier - Richard Strauss (Welsh National Opera)
Káťa Kabanová - Leoš Janáček (Opera Holland Park)
Cendrillon - Jules Massenet (Royal Northern College of Music)
Eight Songs for a Mad King - Peter Maxwell Davies (BBC Proms)
Faust - Charles Gounod (Magdeburg, Germany)
Iris - Pietro Mascagni (Opera Holland Park)
Alcina - Georg Friedrich Handel (Royal Academy of Music)
Madama Butterfly - Giacomo Puccini (Opera Oviedo)
Inés de Castro - James MacMillan (Scottish Opera)
Midsummer Night’s Dream - Benjamin Britten (Trinity Laban, Blackheath Halls)
Norma - Vincenzo Bellini (Opera Holland Park)
Der Rosenkavalier - Richard Strauss (Magdeburg, Germany)
Stemmer - Orlando Gough (Bergen, Norway)
Noye’s Fludde - Benjamin Britten (Southbank Centre)
Hansel and Gretel - Engelbert Humperdinck (Garsington Opera)
Midsummer Night’s Dream - Benjamin Britten (Scottish Opera/RCS)
Operafest - Orlando Gough (Bergen Nasjonale Opera, Norway)
Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti (Opera Holland Park, London)
Madama Butterfly - Puccini (Magdeburg, Germany)
Die Zauberflöte - Mozart (Opera Oviedo, Spain)
Il Trovatore - Verdi (Den Jyske Opera, Denmark)
Pelléas et Mélisande - Debussy (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires)
Saul - Handel (Buxton Opera)
Magic Flute - Mozart (Garsington Opera)
Fidelio - Beethoven (Opera Holland Park)
Pelléas et Mélisande - Debussy (Opera Holland Park)
Rusalka - Dvořák (Opera North)
Carmen, the Musical - Bizet (Wandsworth Prison)
La Traviata - Verdi (Den Jyske Opera, Denmark)
Káťa Kabanová - Janacek (Opera Holland Park)
Giustino - Handel (Trinity/Handel Festival London)
Threepenny Opera - Weill (community production THFestival)
Rake’s Progress - Stravinsky (Garsington Opera)
Midsummer Night’s Dream - Britten (Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio)
Rigoletto - Verdi (Den Jyske Opera, Denmark)
Jenůfa - Janáček (Opera Holland Park)
Rusalka - Dvořák (Opera Australia) – Helpmann Award for Best Opera, Green Room awards Best Opera and Best Direction
Marriage of Figaro - Mozart (English National Opera)
May Night - Rimsky-Korsakov (Garsington Opera)
Falstaff - Verdi (Guildhall School of Music)
Don Giovanni - Mozart (Opera North)
Macbeth - Verdi (Opera Holland Park)
Roméo et Juliette - Gounod (British Youth Opera)
Pied Piper - Kate Pearson (Opera North)
Midsummer Night’s Dream - Britten (Royal Opera House)
Cherevichki - Tchaikovsky (Garsington Opera)
Luisa Miller - Verdi (Opera Holland Park)
Theodora - Handel – Revival/Peter Sellars prod. (Opera du Rhin)
Rusalka - Dvořák (Opera North)
Fidelio - Beethoven (Opera Holland Park)
The Italian Songbook - Hugo Wolf (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House)
Osud and Šárka - Janáček for Garsington Opera
La Traviata - Verdi (revival) ETO spring tour
La Traviata - Verdi (ETO autumn tour)
The Showcase (National Opera Studio at Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Pleasure Palaces - John Lunn, Millenium show (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith)
Turn of the Screw - Britten for the Brighton Festival
ENO Contemporary Opera Project (Greek/ Country of Blind/ King Harald’s Saga) at Bridewell Theatre with National Opera Studio
Pandora’s Box - Issie Barratt & Olivia Fuchs, Drill Hall Theatre
Burning Mirrors music - Poulenc, for ENO Studio at the Limelight Nightclub
Il Trovatore - Verdi for Opera South, Ireland at Cork Opera House
Apollo & Hyacinth and Grabmusik - Mozart at Britten Theatre, London,
The Maids - John Lunn, libretto Olivia Fuchs, ENO Studio/Lyric Theatre/ Theatre Works co-production at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith (main house)
La Bohème - Puccini (Opera South, Ireland at Cork Opera House)
Theodora - Handel (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Revival Director)
Marriage of Figaro - Mozart (QEH, Southbank)
Suor Angelica - Puccini (Birmingham Conservatoire)
Theodora - Handel (Glyndebourne Touring, Revival Director)
The Maids - John Lunn (ENO Contemporary Opera Studio workshop)
ENO Contemporary Opera (Pierrot Lunaire/ King Priam/ Blond Eckbert)
Assistant to Peter Sellars on Theodora (Handel, Glyndebourne Festival)
Arminio - Handel (Britten Theatre, London Handel Society/RCM)
Orpheus and Eurydice - Gluck (Taplow Court Festival)
Falstaff - Verdi (Opera Brava tour)
Don Giovanni - Mozart (Opera East tour)
Dido and Aeneas - Purcell (Taplow Court Festival)
Marriage of Figaro - Mozart (Opera Brava tour)
The Turn of the Screw - Benjamin Britten (Theatre Royal, Bath)
Associate Director on Coronation of Poppea - Monteverdi (Opera Factory)
and The Return of Ulysses - Monteverdi (English National Opera)
Johnny Johnson - Kurt Weill (Opera Factory Zürich)
The Madman and the Nun - Witkiewicz (Cracked Mirror, DOC London)
Assistant and revival director on Julia - Kelterborn (Opera Factory Zürich)
The Round Table - Christoph Hein (British Premiere, Lyric Theatre Studio)
Assistant Director on Morte d’Arthur with music by Nigel Osborn - Lyric Theatre Hammersmith
Yerma - Lorca (national tour and Duke of Cambridge Theatre)
Assistant/ Hospitant on Peter Stein’s Roberto Zucco - Koltes (Schaubühne, Berlin)
Washday - F.C. Delius (British Premiere in own translation at Duke of Cambridge)