Louisa Muller

Ms. Muller’s production of The Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera received the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award and was named by The Guardian as one of the Top Ten Classical Music Performances of the Year; she subsequently revived it at Santa Fe Opera. She subsequently returned to Garsington, bringing a new production of Platée. She created new productions of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers at Houston Grand Opera; La traviata for Santa Fe Opera, later revived at Dallas Opera; Rinaldo for Pinchgut Opera; and Dialogues des Carmélites and The Rake’s Progress at The Juilliard School.

She received rich critical acclaim for her staging of Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic, which the New York Times called “riveting…a remarkable evening of music theater” and named among its list of the Best Classical Music Performances of the Year. She created new productions of The Rake’s Progress for The Juilliard School and Amadigi di Gaula for Boston Baroque, reviving the latter for Philharmonia Baroque. In addition, she directed concert stagings of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival and Don Giovanni at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp. She is also a recent finalist in both the “Director” and “Newcomer” categories of the International Opera Awards.

She has been a frequent and beloved presence at Wolf Trap Opera, where she has directed new productions of Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, called “a dazzling thing all around” by the Washington Post; The Rape of Lucretia, with the Washington Post again heralding her work as “an intense wallop of a well-sung production;” Tosca, praised as “searing summer verismo” by Washington Classical Review; and Roméo et Juliette, “the drama taut” and with “compelling stage pictures,” reported the Washington Post.

She has led performances of Tannhäuser and Don Carlo with Los Angeles Opera, and has joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago to direct Ernani, Madama Butterfly, La bohème, and Tosca. Ms. Muller has also led productions of Madama Butterfly for Opera Queensland, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Houston Grand Opera and La traviata for Minnesota Opera. As a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s directing staff, Ms. Muller has helmed revivals of Don Giovanni as well as Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci and L'elisir d’amore.

Invested in the dramatic training for singers, she has twice directed the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Rising Stars concert featuring its Ryan Opera Center and has collaborated with those singers in individual dramatic coaching tailored to their repertoire. She has given masterclasses and dramatic coaching at the National Opera Studio in London, Houston Grand Opera Studio and Young Artists Vocal Academy, Wolf Trap Opera, Baylor University, University of Wisconsin, Lawrence University, and the University of Texas and has been a faculty member of the Scuola di Belcanto in Urbania, Italy. She has directed scenes programs for Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera Studio, Wolf Trap Opera Studio, and Rice University.

She holds degrees from Lawrence University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a citizen of the United States and Germany and makes her home in London.