Philippe Giraudeau

Biography

Studied dance in his home town of La Rochelle and worked as a professional dancer in France before joining London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Second Stride dance company. In 1988 Philippe won the London Dance and Performance Award.

He has also worked in England as an actor at the National Theatre in Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker and Pericles, at the Royal Opera in Massenet’s Chérubin, at Orange Tree Theatre in Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Churchill’s A Mouthful of Birds at the Royal Court, The Princess of Cleves, Secret Gardens and IQ of 4 at the ICA theatre, London and on television and films.

As a choreographer, his work in opera includes: with director Tim Albery, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Widow for the Metropolitan Opera, Janáček’s From the House of the Dead and Boris Godunov for English National Opera, Der fliegende Holländer at Covent Garden. He collaborated with Robert Carsen on Semele and The Cunning Little Vixen, Katja Kabanova at the Vlaamse Opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Alcina and Rusalka at the Paris Opera, Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites for Netherlands Opera and La Scala, Der Rosenkavalier in Salzburg, La traviata at La Fenice, Elektra in Tokyo, Manon Lescaut in Vienna, Iphigénie en Tauride at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Covent Garden, Tannhäuser in Tokyo and Paris, Salome in Turin, Madrid and Florence and most recently Rinaldo for Glyndebourne and Don Giovanni at La Scala.

He choreographed Jenůfa in Amsterdam and Chicago for Richard Jones as well as Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande for Opera North and ENO, George Neveux’s Juliette ou la clé des songes at the Opera Garnier, Les Troyens at the ENO, The Cunning Little Vixen at the Netherlands Opera and Irving Berlin’s Annie, Get Your Gun at the Young Vic Theatre, London. With Antony McDonald, Philippe worked on Aida, Samson et Dalila, and Snatched by the Gods/Broken Strings for Scottish Opera, and Wonderful Town for Grange Park Opera.

He collaborated with Stephen Langridge on Handel’s Arianna in Creta for the Reisopera (Netherlands), John Lunn’s Tangier Tatoo for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Otello in Salzburg and La damnation de Faust at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. For the Bregenzer Festspiele, he did Un ballo in maschera and La Bohème, both directed by Richard Jones and Antony McDonald, and Il trovatore directed by Robert Carsen. Collaborated with John Fulljames on Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig at the Young Vic and From the house of the Dead for Opera North.