Richard Jones (director)

For the American film director, see F. Richard Jones.

Richard Jones
CBE
Born7 June 1953
London, England
OccupationTheatre director
Years active1982–present

Richard Jones CBE (born 7 June 1953) is a British theatre and opera director. He was born in London, and studied at the University of Hull and University of London. After working as a jazz musician, he spent 1982–83 on a bursary working with Scottish Opera and the Citizens Theatre.

His work has become controversial and has provoked considerable reactions from the UK press. However, he is also seen as a major figure in the worlds of theatre and opera, as has been noted in a 2002 interview which appeared in London's The Guardian:

[His] gift for the thrilling, the gaudy and the wayward is one of the characteristics that marks Jones out. "He is the best British director around at the moment," says director David Pountney, part of the "powerhouse" triumvirate that presided over English National Opera in the 1980s. "He is extremely imaginative, he has a very individual, quirky response to the material, and a very sharp eye for humour."[1]

Professional career

Opera

Jones's earliest productions were for the Batignano Festival, Opera Northern Ireland and Opera 80, now English Touring Opera. He came to prominence in 1987 with the world première of Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera for Kent Opera and a production of Mignon at the Wexford Festival. Overall, he has worked for a wide range of well-known opera companies, including directing five productions for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Lohengrin (Munich) and Skin Deep for Opera North, Copenhagen, and Bregenz); several for the Glyndebourne Festival; two for Frankfurt Opera; productions for Brussels as well as the Olivier Award-winning Hansel and Gretel for Welsh National Opera. Operas ranging from Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci to From Morning to Midnight, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Love for Three Oranges appeared on the stage of English National Opera while Pelleas and Melisande was presented for both Opera North and ENO in 1995. This production was described as "one of Jones's unalloyed successes",[1] while his 1993 Ring Cycle at Covent Garden came in for much criticism: "[it] was greeted with bemusement, even contempt: one paper called it "a monument of garish flippancy and banal cartoon caricature". "The audience's catcalls on the first night of Das Rheingold made front-page news" noted Charlotte Higgins in her 2002 interview with the director,[1] and a photo of the Rhinemaidens in fat suits even made the front page of the Sun newspaper. As a result, ENO's decision to entrust Jones with their new Ring Cycle in 2021 "raised some eyebrows", according to Nicholas Kenyon's review in the Telegraph. In the event, reviews of The Valkyrie (with which the cycle opened) were almost unanimously hostile to the production.

He has directed for Amsterdam and Munich, while L'enfant et les sortilèges appeared on the Paris Opera stage. The summer festival at Bregenz featured large-scale productions of Un ballo in maschera and La bohème. Berg's Wozzeck was staged in Berlin and at Welsh National Opera.[2]

In 2013, Jones directed the production of Benjamin Britten's opera Gloriana at The Royal Opera House in London for the centennial of Britten's birth. Additionally, the American premiere of the opera Anna Nicole was presented by New York City Opera in September, a revival of his original production at The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.

The theatre

Theatre work includes five productions for the Young Vic in London and which range from The Government Inspector to Annie Get Your Gun. Black Snow was directed for the American Repertory Theatre, plus All's Well That Ends Well for the Public Theater in New York. In London, Holy Mothers was presented at the Ambassadors and the Royal Court Theatre, while La Bête was seen in London's West End and on Broadway, where it received a Tony nomination. On Broadway, Jones' productions of the Maury Yeston Tony Award-winning Best Musical Titanic and Wrong Mountain were presented. [3] For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jones directed A Midsummer Night's Dream, which provoked critical reactions such as the comments "Dream world ruined by this vandal's romp" and "Miserably undercast, grotesquely overdesigned, sloppily directed and lacks the following: theatricality, comedy and magic" which appeared as part of The Guardian's interview.[1] Higgins also notes that the production "is now generally known as the play that got the worst reviews of the RSC's entire history and of any theatre production for the past 20 years.[1]

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Tales from the Vienna Woods by Odon von Horvath—in a new version by David Harrower—were presented by the National Theatre in London.[4]

Recent years

In 2011, Jones directed David Harrower's Government Inspector (after Gogol's Revisor of 1836) at Warwick Arts Centre and London's Young Vic Theatre; the production featured Julian Barratt and Doon Mackichan.

Additionally, Offenbach's opera, Les contes d'Hoffmann, was directed for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. This production concentrated on the poet's state of mind, intensified by drinking and pipe-smoking. All three loves occupied physically similar spaces, as if their tales existed only in Hoffmann's imagination. Rolando Villazón sang Hoffmann, having returned to vocal form after difficulties, and Diana Damrau took the roles of Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta and, mutely, Stella. It was conducted by Constantinos Carydis.[5] [6] The production was also noteworthy for Angela Brower's portrayal of the leading role of Nicklausse, Hoffmann's constant companion. English National Opera co-commissioned the staging, which received negative reviews along with the good, provoking this response in Britain's Opera magazine:

Of course there were striking elements in Jones’s direction—there always are—his handling of the doll for one, and the effect of the rose-tinted spectacles, which he didn’t follow through consistently. I was less sure of King Kong watching the Antonia act from the floats, and joining in Giulietta’s entourage. And as of now the Giulietta act is a mess. In sum, the Jones Hoffmann is too abstract, too loose of focus, and far too long. Perhaps Kaye-Keck could be persuaded to turn their minds to an ‘authentic’ opéra comique edition.[7]

Other reviews took different approaches.[8]

Awards

Year Won /

Nom.

Award For Role Production
2020 Won South Bank Sky Arts Awards Best Opera Director Katya Kabanova
2019 Won Olivier Award Best New Opera Production Director Katya Kabanova
2015 Won Olivier Award Outstanding Achievement in Opera Director The Girl Of The Golden West, The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg and Rodelinda at London Coliseum
2012 Nom. Olivier Award Outstanding Achievement in Opera Director Anna Nicole &  Il Trittico (Royal Opera House), The Tales of Hoffmann (London Coliseum)
2011 Won South Bank Sky Arts Award Best Opera Production Director Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (WNO)
2005 Won TMA Award Achievement In Opera Director with Valdimir Jurowski - Wozzeck (WNO)
2005 Won Olivier Award Best Opera Production Director Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Royal Opera House)
2004 Won Olivier Award Best Opera Production Director The Trojans (ENO at the London Coliseum)
2001 Won TMA Award Achievement In Opera Director with Vladimir Jurowski & the company - The Queen of Spades (WNO)
2000 Won Opernwelt Designer of the Year Designer with Antony MacDonald - Un Ballo in Maschera
2000 Won Olivier Award Best New Opera Director Hansel and Gretl (WNO at Sadlers Wells)
1997 Won Tony Award Best Musical Director Titanic (Broadway)
1996 Won Evening Standard Award Outstanding Artistic Achievement Director Der Ring
1991 Won Olivier Award Best Director of a Musical Director Into The Woods (Phoenix Theatre)
1991 Nom. Tony Award Best Director Director La Bête (Broadway)
1990 Won Evening Standard Award Best Director Director Into The Woods (Phoenix Theatre) & The Illusion (Old Vic Theatre)
1988 Won Olivier Award Best Newcomer In a Play Director Too Clever By Half (Old Vic Theatre)

Production history

Year Production Venue
2023 Pygmalion The Old Vic
2022 Samson et Delila Royal Opera House
2021 Valkyrie London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2021 La Clemenza di Tito Royal Opera House
2020 Endgame Old Vic
2019 Judgment Day Park Avenue Armoury, New York
2019 La Damnation de Faust Glyndebourne Festival Opera
2019 The Twilight Zone Ambassadors Theatre
2019 Katya Kabanova Royal Opera House
2018 Parsifal Opera National de Paris
2017 The Twllight Zone Almeida Theatre
2017 La Boheme Royal Opera House
2017 The Hairy Ape Park Avenue Armoury, New York
2016 Don Giovanni London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2016 Ariodante Nationale Opera and Ballet, Amsterdam
2016 Boris Godunov Royal Opera House
2016 Once In A Lifetime Young Vic
2015 The Hairy Ape Old Vic
2015 The Trial Young Vic
2015 The Queen of Spades Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma
2015 The Mastersingers of Nuremberg London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2014 La fanciulla del West London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2014 Ariodante Festival D'Aix En Provence
2014 Der Rosenkavalier Glyndebourne Festival Opera
2014 Rodelinda London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2013 Anna Nicole New York City Opera
2013 Billy Budd Gotesborgsoperan
2013 Gloriana Royal Opera House
2013 Public Enemy Young Vic
2013 Hansel and Gretel Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
2013 Gloriana Staatsoper Hamburg
2012 Julietta London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2012 Peter Grimes La Scala, Milan
2012 Věc Makropulos Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt
2012 Juliette ou la Clef des songes Grand Theatre de Geneve
2012 Tales of Hoffmann London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2011 Les Contes D’Hoffmann Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
2011 Il Trittico Royal Opera House
2011 The Government Inspector Young Vic
2011 Macbeth Opera de Lille
2011 Billy Budd De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam
2011 Anna Nicole Royal Opera House
2011 The Cunning Little Vixen De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam
2010 Die Meistersinger Welsh National Opera, Cardiff
2010 Skin Deep The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen
2010 Pique Dame Houston Grand Opera
2010 The Gambler Royal Opera House
2009 Rusalka Finnish National Opera, Helsinki
2009 Rumpelstiltskin Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
2009 Annie Get Your Gun Young Vic
2009 Lohengrin Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
2009 Falstaff Glyndebourne Festival Opera
2009 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk New National Theatre Tokyo
2009 Skin Deep Opera North
2008 Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacc London Coliseum (English National Opera)
2008 The Good Soul of Szechuan Young Vic
2008 The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant Theater Basel
2008 Rusalka The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen
2007 Billy Budd Oper Frankfurt

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e quoted by (or written by) Higgins' in her interview in The Guardian
  2. ^ "Operas Include" section of richardjonesdirector.co.uk lists a wide variety of his work
  3. ^ "Theatre includes", section of the director's website
  4. ^ Rose English (and audience member questioners), "Richard Jones on Tales from the Vienna Woods", 22 October 2003 at the Olivier Theatre on nationaltheatre.org.uk
  5. ^ George Loomis, "In Matters of the Heart, Contes d’Hoffmann Skips a Beat, The New York Times, 15 November 2011 on nytimes.com. Retrieved 2 March 2015
  6. ^ Background information on Constantinos Carydis
  7. ^ Rodney Milnes, "English National Opera at the London Coliseum, February 16: The Tales of Hoffmann, Opera (London), March 2012
  8. ^ Tim Ashley, "The Tales of Hoffmann – review", The Guardian (London), 12 February 2012 on theguardian.com

Sources

  • Adam, Nicky (ed.) (1993), Who's Who in British Opera London: Scolar Press. ISBN 0-85967-894-6
  • Higgins, Charlotte, "Rise of the Demon King", The Guardian (London), 20 April 2002. (Profile of Jones)
  • Warrack, John, and Ewan West (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869164-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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