Louisa Proske, Director

Louisa Proske has established herself as a versatile, visionary opera and artistic director on two continents. After studying English literature at the University of Cambridge and directing at the Yale School of Drama, she developed a distinctive style that combines musical precision, narrative clarity, and poetic imagery.

In the 2025–26 season, Louisa directed Lucia di Lammermoor at the Tyrolean Festival Erl, staged Primero Sueño for the first time in Mexico City, directed Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and staged the world premiere of The Enchanted City at Essen’s Aalto Theatre. Her upcoming projects include her directorial debut at the Metropolitan Opera with Verdi’s Macbeth and her debut at the Opéra national de Paris in September 2026 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

As co-founder and former co-artistic director of Heartbeat Opera, she shaped an ensemble described by The New York Times as “small and young, but crucial to the future of the genre” and hailed as “pioneers” by The Wall Street Journal. It was there that she worked on such acclaimed productions as Der Freischütz, Don Giovanni, Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Daphnis et Chloé, and Miss Handel.

Her recent works include the opening production of Tosca for the 50th anniversary of the Glimmerglass Festival, new productions of Handel’s Serse and Amadigi di Gaula (both opening the Handel Festival in Halle), Rusalka (Theater Regensburg), Rinaldo (Detroit Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival), Chausson’s Le roi Arthus (Bard SummerScape), the world premiere of Primero Sueño (MetLiveArts in New York), and the production of The Mother of Us All—a historic collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Philharmonic, and Juilliard Vocal Arts—that was declared the number-one classical music highlight of 2020 by The New York Times.

From 2021 to 2024, Louisa was Deputy Artistic Director and Resident Director of the Halle Opera, where she directed, among other works, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Gypsy, Into the Woods, and Rigoletto.

In 2018 she was awarded a Princess Grace Award, and in 2024 she was nominated as Director of the Year in the Opernwelt magazine critics’ poll.

In the field of acting, she has directed at venues including the Red Bull Theater in New York (Webster’s The White Devil), the Barrington Stage Company (Engagements, Gaslight, This), and the Assembly Theatre in Edinburgh, as well as a European tour of Macbeth. Her production of Jiehae Park’s peerless earned her a Berkshire Theatre Award nomination.