Richard Jones (director)

Richard Jones
Born	7 June 1953 London, England
Occupation	Theatre director

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:

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 Gretelfor 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", 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.

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