Biography
Charles Edwards was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and graduated from the Central School of Art and Design in London. His work is regularly seen in Europe and the United States. He has designed productions for the directors David Alden, Jean-Claude Auvray, Robert Carsen, Caroline Gawn, Leah Hausman, Tim Hopkins, Inga Levant, David McVicar, Stephen Medcalf and Stein Winge. His work has also been televised in Britain.
Designs include Gounod’s Faust (also Monte Carlo, Lille and Trieste), Massenet’s Werther (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Donizetti‘s Lucia di Lammermoor, Janáček’s Jenůfa and The Makropulos Affair (English National Opera), Puccini’s Tosca (Opera North), Strauss’s Elektra (Welsh National Opera), Verdi’s Il trovatore (Opera North and Opera Ireland Dublin), Fibich’s Šárka (Wexford Festival) and others.
Designs in the US include Jenůfa (Houston Grand Opera), Berg’s Wozzeck (Dallas Opera and Lyric Opera Chicago), Janáček’s Katya Kabanova and Verdi’s Macbeth (Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera Chicago), Verdi’s Il trovatore, and The Makropulos Affair (Lyric Opera Chicago).
He also participated on the production of Weber’s Der Freischütz (Metz), Wagner’s Parsifal (Graz), Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Genoa, Liceu Barcelona, Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Théâtre des Champs Elysées Paris, New Israeli Opera and Long Beach Opera), Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (also Paris, Châtelet), Verdi’s Attila (Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg, Liège and Tel Aviv), Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Mannheim), Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Stuttgart), Verdi’s La forza del destino (Royal Danish Opera), Katya Kabanova and Werther (New Israeli Opera).
He made his début as a director with Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Mid-Wales Opera) in 2001. This was followed by an acclaimed Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex for Opera North and by Elektra for the Royal Opera Covent Garden in 2003. He directed and designed Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan for the 2005 Wexford Festival and Puccini’s Turandot for De Reisopera in Enschede in 2006. Verdi’s Rigoletto for Opera North followed in 2006 and 2007.
Update: June 2008