About
Louise Bakker is a stage director across opera, theatre and musicals. She is Dutch/British and studied Drama with English at Manchester University. In Summer 2025 she'll direct a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Longborough Festival Opera. In 2026 she'll be reviving Simon Stone's production of Innocence at New York's Metropolitan Opera and at the Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen.
Directing credits include: Acis & Galatea (Opera Holland Park), Don Giovanni Tenorio, Orpheus in the Underworld, Opera Scenes (Royal College of Music), Lucia di Lammermoor (Brent Opera), The Rake's Progress, Jenufa, Cavalleria Rusticana & I Pagliacci (Aylesbury Opera), Saul, The Dragon of Wantley (Richmond Opera), Mozart & Salieri/Suor Angelica (Rose Opera), A Stroke of Luck (Limelight Theatre), Royal Academy of Music Opera Scenes, Shaw Goes Wilde (Pegasus Opera), Edith & Marguerite (Hen & Chickens Theatre), Assassins (Pleasance Theatre), Pravda (Bridewell Theatre), Virtue Reality (Southwark Playhouse), Waiting Room (Upstairs at the Gatehouse), Iranian Nights (John Thaw Studio Theatre) and Six Degrees of Separation (Edinburgh Festival).
Her opera scenes at the Royal Academy of Music in 2020 are available to watch here.
Associate/Revival Directing credits include Innocence (Simon Stone/Dutch National Opera & San Francisco Opera), Jonathan Dove's Itch (Stephen Barlow/Opera Holland Park/Canadian Opera Company), Die Zauberflöte (Polly Graham/Royal College of Music) which is available to view here.
Assistant Directing credits include Tosca, Innocence, Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Performance (Royal Opera House), Così fan tutte, Tamerlano, Falstaff (The Grange Festival), La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers (Vache Baroque Festival), Margot la Rouge/Le Villi, The Cunning Little Vixen, Kát’a Kabanová (Opera Holland Park), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Academy of Music), The Enchanted Island (British Youth Opera), The School of Jealousy (Bampton Classical Opera), The Braille Legacy (Charing Cross Theatre), National Opera Studio Scenes (Welsh National Opera) and The Color Purple (Cadogan Hall).
She works extensively with the Royal Opera House’s Learning & Participation Department and has considerable performing experience as an actress, singer and voiceover artist. She studied singing at Junior Guildhall, and sang with Manchester University's Chamber Choir Ad Solem under Marcus Farnsworth, OJ Ruthven and Matthew Hamilton, and for the New London Children's Choir under Ronald Corp.
