Oliver Mears

English director Oliver Mears became The Royal Opera’s Director of Opera in March 2017. He joined The Royal Opera from Northern Ireland Opera, where he was its founding Artistic Director (2010–17). He studied English and History at Oxford University where he also assisted playwright Howard Barker, before co-founding London-based opera company Second Movement for whom he directed numerous site-specific productions. His NIO productions included Tosca, L’elisir d’amore, Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth, Salome, Agrippina, Hansel and Gretel, The Turn of the Screw and Noye’s Fludde, also for Beijing and Shanghai Music Festivals.

For The Royal Opera Mears has directed Rigoletto and Jephtha. He has directed for other companies including Norwegian National Opera (L’elisir d’amore), the Young Vic (My Dad’s a Birdman), Bergen National Opera (Don Giovanni), Aldeburgh Music (Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia), Theater Magdeburg (Aida), Opera North (Hansel and Gretel), Scottish Opera (Eugene Onegin, Orpheus in the Underworld), Welsh National Opera (Macbeth), Salzburg Easter Festival (La Gioconda), Novaya Opera Moscow, Pimlico Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Early Opera Company, Nederlandse Reisopera and the National Opera Studio.  

The position of Director of the Royal Opera is generously supported by Sir Mick and Lady Barbara Davis.