Opera Director, Noa Naamat is fast becoming one of the fresh and exciting voices to emerge on the international opera scene. A native Israeli, she has worked across the UK, Europe, America and Asia on a vast range of productions, from mainstream repertoire to world premieres. She is noted for her cutting edge vision, vivid imagery and bringing to life original and captivating interpretations.
Her recent directing credits include Henze’s Phaedra (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Benvenuto Cellini (Royal Opera of Versailles, Berliner Festspiele and Royal Albert Hall), Don Pasquale, L’elisir d’amore and Don Giovanni (Arezzo Opera Festival), Così fan tutte (Diva Opera), Il matrimonio segreto (Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music), La voix humaine (Studiotheater Schloss Belvedere Weimar), Salieri’s Prima la musica e poi le parole (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and the world premiere of A Different Story (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden). Additionally, she has staged assorted opera scenes productions for Clonter Opera, Royal Academy of Music and a variety of opera festivals in Tuscany. Noa became the youngest director ever accepted to the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She made her house debut directing the Young Artists Summer Performance on the main stage.
Before completing her MA in Directing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Noa studied Theatre Practice at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, as well as Italian and History of Opera at the Accademia Europea di Firenze. She was the Apprentice Director at Lyric Opera Studio Weimar and at Oberlin’s Summer Opera Program in Italy. Supplementing her operatic work, she also held a directing residency at Shakespeare’s Globe, where she staged scenes from The Merchant of Venice on The Globe stage.
Noa is dedicated to the development and training of young talents and has delivered classes and workshops for the Royal Opera House, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Noa has also worked extensively as an assistant and staff director for the Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, The Israeli Opera, Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
Among the awards and honors Noa has received for her work, her production of Benvenuto Cellini, in which she collaborated with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, won the Oper! Awards for ‘Best Opera Recording’. Her production of Il matrimonio segreto was a winner of the National Opera Association’s Opera Production Competition. Noa has also been named the distinguished Bayreuth Bursary from The Wagner Society and was the recipient of the Accademia Europea dell’Opera Stage Director Fellowship. Her production of Henze’s Phaedra at the Royal Opera House was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.