Bio
Romain Gilbert studies piano and opera singing at the Paris Conservatoire. After studying engineering he moved towards artistic and cultural management. He obtained his Bachelor of Musicology then his Master of Music Management at the Paris University La Sorbonne. He became administrator of the Friends of the Paris Opera for 10 years. After several several experiences in production management at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Accentus Chamber Choir, the Opéra national de Paris, he works with the pianist, composer and television man Jean-François Zygel, then he went on to become production manager of the Musiciens du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski.
He then turned to staging by successively assisting Laurent Pelly at La Monnaie de Bruxelles, then Ivan Alexandre at the Drottningholm Opera House in Sweden, at the Royal Opera of Versailles, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, at the Bordeaux Opera and in Italy for a Mozart / Da Ponte Trilogy. He’s also in charge of the revival of Ivo van Hove’s Diary of the one who disappeared on tour (Beijng, BAM Brooklyn, Budapest, Covent Garden…). He assists Krystian Lada at the Royal Opera House of Copenhagen for the creation of The Mysteries of Desire then Claus Guth in 2023 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu for Parsifal.
He’s often invited by the Bordeaux Opera where he directed La Périchole in 2018, revived at the Royal Opera of Versailles then Carmen in 2021 and Werther in 2022 (with Benjamin Bernheim). He directs for the Palazzetto Bru Zane a dyptic Offenbach/Wachs in Aix en Provence, Venice and Paris. He also stages their Gala at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. Romain Gilbert works with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse for semi-staged programs. The Philharmonie of Luxemburg also asks him to create Les quatre saisons de Buenos Aires, Le voyage de Don Quichotte et La fée Oriane.
He directs several operas in semi-staged version such as La Périchole at the Pentecost Festival in Salzburg and the Festival Radio France, Così fan tutte at the Festival Enescu in Bucarest, La Clemenza di Tito at the State Theater in Prague, Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Baden Baden and Bremen. This season he directs Orphée aux enfers at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.
He becomes associate director for La vie parisienne with Christian Lacroix in Rouen, Tours, Liège and at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées ; production revived this season in Limoges and Montpellier. He creates a program Ballad in RED based on Edgar Allan Poe’s novels for the Musikkolegium in Winterthur with the harpist Emmanuel Ceysson
This season, Romain Gilbert directs Carmen in Rouen, Roméo et Juliette at the Dallas Opera (with Golda Schultz) and La Gioconda at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (with Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Anita Rachvelichvili and Ludovic Tézier in the main roles).
Romain Gilbert is represented by ALMA Agents artistiques - marnaud.alma2a@gmail.com
Photo Julien Benhamou