Former staff director at Welsh National Opera 2001-2011, now working internationally as a stage director, associate and revival director of opera productions. Associate Researcher and member of CIRO (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Opera and Drama) at Cardiff University. PhD thesis on ‘Performing Realism’: A practice-led study of contemporary realism in opera staging. Directed acclaimed revivals for WNO, ROH, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Scottish Opera, Netherlands Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Chicago Lyric Opera, Bayerisches Staatsoper, Opéra Comique, Le Capitôle Toulouse, and Teater an der Wien. Specialist in semi-staging opera in concert venues, such as semi-staging George Benjamin’s Written On Skin with Mahler Chamber Orchestra for a European tour, Holland Festival and the Beijing Music Festival in 2018 to critical acclaim.

for

New productions in 2015 of Sir John in Love, by Vaughn Williams, and in 2014 of Puccini’s La Rondine, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

La Rondine, RCS

A Stylish Rondine from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

****bachtrack

Written On Skin, szenische einstudierung, for Bayerische Staatsoper Münchner Opernfestspiele 2013 at Prinzregententheater. Also, mitarbeit regie, for Wiener Festwochen 2013 at Theater an der Wien. See further down for YouTube trailer from the making of this production in Aix-en-Provence in 2012 where I was collaborateur à la mise-en-scène.

Hänsel und Gretel for Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, directed a new staging on behalf of Richard Jones, which premiered 24th March 2013,  with further performances scheduled in the yearly repertoire.

   

                                           

                                                           Click here for an exhibition by

                                                           Portland Comicbook Artists of this

                                                           production when I directed it in

                                                           Portland, Oregan.

A sketch of me directing the children

in the last scene of the same production

for Portland Opera.

Also as Director:

Cosi fan tutte, new production for Welsh National Opera in 2011 and a UK tour in 2012, receiving 4 and 5 stars in national and online reviews.

                                         Cosi fan tutte, WNO

...imagine Hi-de-Hi! rewritten by Joe Orton, or maybe Dario Fo.

**** The Times, May 2011

...Benjamin Davis’s achievement in presenting a Così more vibrantly translucent and subtly thought-provoking than virtually any other I can think of in thirty years of watching productions of the opera. Its major asset is its clarity, the patiently nuanced anatomisation of how devotion so quickly turns to infidelity, love to fickleness, the idealism of callow youth to the messy, emotionally fractured nether-regions of lived experience.

**** Opera Britannia, Oct 2012

Opera Scenes for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which opened the newly built Richard Burton Theatre in Cardiff in June 2012. I have also directed for RWCMD’s Design for Opera course for 6 years.

Il Trittico: Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi as director of all three one-act operas for Opera Zuid, touring the Netherlands in 2007.

                                       Il Tabarro - Opera Zuid

Top achievement at Opera Zuid

‘In Il Tabarro young director Ben Davis is showing his top qualities, in Suor Angelica he exceeds himself.’

De Gaykrant, December 2007

  

                                 Suor Angelica - Opera Zuid

Opera Zuid takes ‘Il Trittico’ beautifully seriously

‘Davis’ naturalistic approach was convincing. He kept pace with the music. When Puccini gets more dramatic, he had very strong pictures like the entrance of the ice-cold and the heartless aunt of Angelica...Dutch soprano Francis van Broekhuizen surprised friend and foe with a scorching and heart-breaking interpretation of pitiful Sister Angelica.’

Trouw, November 19, 2007

                                Gianni Schicchi - Opera Zuid

                                                  

‘The final piece Gianni Schicchi, in which the inheritance of a rich man is being redivided accompanied by genial frolicking sounds, turned into a bitter carnivalesque farce in the direction of young Brit Ben Davis.’

De Volkskrant, November 19, 2007

♥♥♥♥ Tranen van ontroering én plezier bij ‘Trittico’ van Opera Zuid (Tears of emotion and pleasure at ‘Il Trittico’)

I♥THTR website, December 06, 2007

        To Paris with Puccini - cafe songs by Eric Satie and Il Tabarro, WNO

I directed national community concert tours To Paris with Puccini and Star-Cross’d Lovers for WNO in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. I have also semi-staged Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen and Jephtha for WNO at Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Collaborations as Associate and Revival Director:

Collaborateur artistique à la mise en scène, for Katie Mitchell on the staging of Written On Skin, a world premier by George Benjamin/Martin Crimp for the Féstival d’Aix-en-Provence 2012 and touring Europe extensively throughout 2013, receiving an International Opera Award in the category of World Premier.

     

                                  Written On Skin - Aix-en-Provence

Also as associate director to Katie Mitchell: Al gran sole carico d’amore, by Luigi Nono, at Kraftwerk Mitte in Berlin, with Staatsoper im Schiller Theater 2012 following its creation for the Salzburg Festival 2009.

                        Al gran sole carico d’amore - Salzburg Festival

Choreographer of Orest, by Manfred Trojhan, for De Nederlandse Opera, which had its world premier 8th December 2011 in Amsterdam.

                                            Orest - Amsterdam

Co-director of a mixed media staging of Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations for Cardiff International Dance Festival with Welsh National Opera and National Dance Company Wales.

                 Les Illuminations - Cardiff International Dance Festival

Movement director for Jephtha at Royal Danish Opera.

 

                                   Jephtha - Royal Danish Opera

As Revival Director: Hansel and Gretel, The Queen of Spades and Wozzeck (Richard Jones’ landmark, award-winning productions for WNO). Also most recently Gianni Schicchi for ROH as part of Jones’ production of Il Trittico conducted by Antonio Pappano, the DVD of which received the International Opera Award in 2013.

                                Wozzeck - Welsh National Opera

Further revival directing credits include Tosca and The Magic Flute for WNO and stagings of Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen and Jephtha at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Hansel and Gretel for Portland Opera, Oregon, which also inspired an exhibition by Portland Comicbook Artists made at the dress rehearsal. See top menu bar for more details.

WOZZECK (2009 revival)

‘I haven't the space to do justice to Welsh National Opera's revival of Richard Jones' production of Berg's Wozzeck, but it's stunningly good, and I do urge anyone with a serious interest in opera not to miss it. The staging is arrestingly imaginative and immaculately executed...’

***** The Telegraph

‘The revival director, Benjamin Davis, and the music director, Lothar Koenigs, tenaciously stick to Jones’s template, with pacing and gestures quickly paced, sharply sculptured and darkly witty.’

**** The Times

‘It is a staging that demands to be seen. This season, beans means Wozzeck’

***** The Guardian

‘This production was WNO’s first outing at their new home in Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre in 2005. Then, I thought the performance could hardly be bettered but it turns out that I was wrong: this revival brings both the music and the production’s message even more vividly to life... a tribute both to revival director Benjamin Davis and his singer - actors’

Seen and Heard, UK Opera Review