Julia Mintzer

An alum of the Royal Opera House’s Mentorship Programme and a National Opera Association Directing Fellow (US), Julia Mintzer’s interactive theater piece Pizza Parlance was listed in Nombre Art Magazine's "5 Must-Sees of Venice Biennale" and revived for NWR-Forum Düsseldorf and the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art.  Her production of Jekyll and Hyde for Landestheater Schleswig-Holstein was acclaimed for being “as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.”  She next travels to Canada to direct Natalie Dessay and Laurent Naouri in a revival of the play East West Street for Nova Touring International.  She is currently preparing a new opera, Songs for Survivors of the 21st Century for the Belgrade Theatre (UK) and an immersive Il ritorno d’Ulisse for Vache Baroque (UK.)  She directed the first full staging of Fidelio with historical instruments in America, with period orchestra Grand Harmonie at Princeton University.  

Julia recently directed Nathan Gunn and Indira Mahajan in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Opera Grand Rapids and made her German directorial debut last year to critical acclaim with Amahl und die nächtlichen Besucher at Landesbühnen Sachsen.  She has been nominated for two Off West End Awards for Best Opera Production for Bluebeard’s Castle and Der Vampyr.  Her stagings just this year include new productions of Thais for Opera Idaho, Gianni Schicchi for New England Conservatory, The Trout who Found the River (an interactive bluegrass show) for Seventh Street Concerts at Charlotte SHOUT, and creating Caravaggio and his Confessors, a play with early music, commissioned for the visiting exhibition at the Mint Museum (US.) 

Her participation in Dutch National Opera’s Towards a New Dramaturgy programme was sponsored by Britten Pears Arts, and she recently directed a festival of American opera at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.  She is developing Bread and Circuses: The Wrestling Opera with the support of a Bogliasco Fellowship and Arts Council England, and leading Hooran Studios, a team of Tehran-based animators, on Zal and the Phoenix, a multimedia show for children.   She was sponsored by the European Network of Opera Academies to direct excerpts from Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opera Academy of Verona, and invited back by ENOA to direct and develop new work at the Helsinki Festival. 

Julia has led seminars on the integration of technique and interpretation at the University of Cologne's Institute for Art and Art Theory, and has been a guest lecturer at University of Liverpool, Catholic University,  and New England Conservatory.   She is a graduate of The Juilliard School  with additional studies at Columbia University and holds both United Kingdom and United States citizenship.  Her directing practice draws on her parallel career as a soprano, with principal roles at the Sankt Gallen Festspiele, Theater an der Wien, Die Semperoper Dresden, and Welsh National Opera.