Portuguese stage director Pedro Ribeiro holds degrees in Stage Direction and Acting, Theatre Production and Techniques from the School of Music and Performing Arts of the University of Oporto (ESMAE/IPP) with honors. He has also completed the Harp course at Oporto Music Conservatory with honors and the Opera Stage Directing course of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation under Christian Gangneron.
He is a guest teacher in acting, for musical theatre and opera at leading artistic schools and workshops in Portugal, France, Denmark, UK. He also regularly works as a harpist with symphony orchestras throughout Portugal. Some of his harp students are now in Amsterdam, London and Brussels continuing their careers.
He has worked as a performer in classical plays, contemporary dance, performance art, short films and new circus as well as a set and costume designer. Since 2004, he has been closely involved with the international award-winning company Teatro de Marionetas do Porto as an assistant stage director, costume and graphic designer. He has worked as a freelance stage director within opera, drama, musical theatre and contemporary site-specific works in some of Portugal’s major venues some of his acclaimed productions include: Carrapatoso’s A Floresta, Tchekov’s The Cherry Orchard, The Bear, The Marriage Proposal, Britten’s The Little Sweep, and Noye’s Fludde, Menken’s Little Shop of Horrors, Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, A. Loyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
He joined the Royal Opera House young artists programme in 2011 and made his Royal Opera House directing début with Les Nuits d’été and Le Portrait de Manon followed by the staging of the summer showcase in the Linbury Theatre with Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutte, D.Giovanni, La Fille du Regiment, La Boheme and the concert staging of Il viaggio a Reims on the ROH main stage within the 10th Anniversary celebrations of the JPYAP. He also assisted the directors of La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Falstaff and La Bohème for The Royal Opera. In the 2012/13 season, he directed Bastien und Bastienne and Mozart & Salieri in the Linbury Theatre, the Summer Performance on the ROH main stage with The Magic Flute, Anna Bolena, Elisir d’Amore, Idomeneo, Eugene Onegin, La Rondine and assisted the directors of Robert le Diable, Eugene Onegin, Nabucco and La donna del lago for The Royal Opera.
During this amazing experience he had the opportunity to work closely with some of the best singers in the world like Placido Domingo, Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu, Ambrogio Maestri, Erwin Schrott, Ermonela Jaho, Leo Nucci, Simon Keenlyside, Aylin Perez, Vittorio Grigolo, Ana Maria Martinez, Marina Poplavskaya, Krassimira Stoyanova, Pavol Breslik, Marianna Pizzolato, Liudmyla Monastyrska among many others. As well as the directors, Robert Carsen, Kasper Holten, John Copley, John Fulljames, Danielle Abbado, Laurent Pelly, Elijah Moshinsky among many others on stage productions or in workshops provided by the JPYAP.
After finishing his two-year contract with the Royal Opera he was invited to come back to the ROH to direct Montsalvagte’s El Gato con Botas in the Linbury Theatre (obtaining rave reviews) and also to assist Jonathan Kent on his new production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut with Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais. Production credits include directing Rossini’s Cenerentola for the Clapham Opera Festival, Menotti’s Amahl & The Night Visitors for the London Children Opera Company, Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle in Portugal, the revival of Jonathan Kent’s Manon Lescaut at the Bucharest National Opera, for the ROH Robert Carsen’s revivals of Falstaff, Daniele Abbado’s Nabucco, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s Barbiere di Siviglia, Jonathan Kent’s Manon Lescaut, David McVicar’s Rigoletto, Barrie Kosky’s Carmen, the first Portuguese staging and translation of Bach’s St Johns Passion, Grease – the musical, the new musical A Caminho / On our way, the new opera Goldilocks & The Three Little Pigs for the Opera Story Company. He also won the commission for the Tunbridge Wells Puppetry Festival for an original musical theatre piece An account of the state of that place, written by Jennie Buckman (RADA), he also participates for the European Network of Opera Academies in Don Giovanni – 3D Mapping at the Verona Opera Academy; in the New Staging Languages in Opera for La Monnaie/LOD Brussels and in the lab Across / Outra Margem for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.