‘...eine durch und durch überzeugende Produktion.’
Freiburger Nachrichten.
 ‘L’oeuvre…est mise en scène par Jeanne Pansard-Besson avec une grâce, une précision, un à-propos exemplaires.’
Nice Matin.
‘La mise en scène de Jeanne Pansard-Besson est tellement précise, quasi organique, qu'on en oublie presque qu'il s'agit d'une représentation. On se sent propulsé dans ce que la vie a de plus immédiat.’
La Batoille.
'exquisite production'
Classical Source.
‘Jeanne Pansard-Besson has produced a visually startling and enchanting show.’
Ham&High
‘Jeanne Pansard-Besson’s production...is ingenious and cleverly inventive.’
Seen and Heard International




Jeanne Pansard-Besson is an opera director, dramaturge and librettist. She was a finalist in the ninth European Opera-directing Prize and a semi-finalist in the Ring Award 2017. Her productions as a director include Don Pasquale at the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg/Neue Oper Freiburg (NOF), La Tragédie de Carmen at the Royal Academy of Music in London, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers at the Vache Baroque Festival and Buxton International Festival, Hänsel und Gretel with HGO Hampstead Garden Opera in London, L’Amico Fritz at the Festival de Gattières in collaboration with Opéra de Nice and Die Fledermaus with the Berlin Opera Academy. Directing projects in 2026-27 include work with Clonter Opera and a new production of Candide at Theater Aachen.

She has worked with directors such as Mariame Clément, Laurent Pelly, Simon McBurney, Irina Brook, Michael Boyd, Nicola Raab, for companies including Glyndebourne Festival, the Royal Opera House, Opéra Comique, Garsington Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Lorraine, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Graz. This season she is also working as Spielleiterin (House Assistant Director) at the Hamburg State Opera.

As a dramaturge, librettist and director she is writing and developing a new opera project, Penelope’s Web, in collaboration with composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, with the support of the National Opera Studio, the APGRD and TORCH at the University of Oxford, as well as King’s College London (including workshops and performances).

The book based on her PhD in Classics from the University of Cambridge, The Imagination of Rome’s Foundation Myths, will be published by Routledge this year.

Her documentary film about a company of puppeteers in Cambodia, The Shadows of Kok Thlok, was selected by several international festivals.

She is fluent in French, English, German and Italian.

Photo: Louise Kemény.