About

Ruth Knight is a young British opera director with ten years’ experience working at the UK’s major houses.

In the 2023/24 season, she assisted on Christof Loy’s acclaimed La Forza del destino, revived for the Royal Opera by Georg Zlabinger. Ruth also successfully revived Peter Konwitschny’s production of La Traviata for the English National Opera, described by The Stage as “an exciting case of a revival director bolstering the original with detail”. At the end of 2023, Ruth also adapted and directed a reduced La Boheme for Salon Opera; wrote and directed a new commission for the Royal Opera ‘Family Sundays’, The Sandman and the Dew Fairy; and was director-producer for The Song of Home - a new promenade performance in Dorset for her rural engagement company, Outland Opera. In the new year, Ruth travels to Toronto as the associate on Jamie Manton’s The Cunning Little Vixen for Canadian Opera Company. She finishes the season assisting on Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera, and is particularly excited to be directing a brand-new semi-staged version of Puccini’s rarely performed Edgar for Opera Holland Park.

The 2022/23 season’s highlights included directing a brand-new concert staging of Britten’s Gloriana at the London Coliseum; the production received 5 stars in the Guardian, and Opera magazine described it as “an exemplary semi-staging, meticulously rehearsed in detail and drama”. Also at ENO, she was staff director on Christof Loy and Georg Zlabinger’s acclaimed Tosca, and worked with Annilese Miskimmon on The Dead City (Die tote Stadt). Additionally, she revived her semi-staged Carmen for Salon Opera; assisted on her third Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (previously also for the Liceu in Barcelona); revived her children’s opera Spinning Yarns in the Clore Studio for the Royal Opera House ‘Family Sundays’; and finished the season at Garsington Opera, where she assisted Christopher Luscombe on Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

December 2023