Isabella Bywater

Isabella is a director and designer. Her debut as director/designer was Gounod’s Faust at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev in 2013. She has since directed and designed Lucia di Lammermoor for Den Jyske Opera in Denmark in 2014 and La Boheme for San Diego Opera in California in 2015. She is currently preparing Puccini’s Il Trittico for Oslo Opera. Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi will premiere in October 2018 and Suor Angelica in February 2019.

She has designed sets and costumes for over 50 productions both in the UK and internationally. She was nominated awards for the best set and costume design for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Mariinsky in St Petersburg which also won the Zolotov Sofit award for best opera production in 2011.

Isabella has collaborated with may acclaimed directors including Jonathan Miller, Nicholas Hytner, Deborah Warner, Robert Carsen, Keith Warner, Francisco Negrin and Stephen Medcalf. She is also a sculptor and has studied philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London.