25.02.2026

Louise Beck appointed Artistic Director from 2027

From a strong international field of candidates, we have appointed the innovative Danish opera creator Louise Beck as the new Artistic Director of Copenhagen Opera Festival from 2027. 

With Louise Beck, we welcome an enterprising artistic leader with international reach and a clear commitment to expanding the many possibilities of opera.

Each year, we bring together 20–30,000 audience members around some of the greatest voices in the genre, and with Louise we strengthen both tradition and renewal. When Louise presented Den Sidste Olie at the festival in 2022, audiences were asked to bring ski wear and thermal suits. The opera, which portrayed the colonisation of Greenland and the exploitation of nature, took place on the ice in Østerbro Skating Hall. It marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration on newly written works that have expanded both the framework of opera and the spaces it can inhabit.

This collaboration now enters a new phase. Louise Beck is a scenographer, director and artistic director of the opera platform OPE-N (formerly OperaNord). For nearly three decades she has worked dedicatedly to develop opera as a living and contemporary art form, through new site-specific formats and in dialogue with the classical repertoire.

Louise Beck has established herself as a clear voice in discussions about opera’s development conditions and sustainable structures, combining a deep love for the genre with a strong ability to create new connections.

A strong artistic profile

Throughout her career, Louise has worked at the intersection between the established opera field and the independent music-dramatic environment. Her work ranges from classical productions of Mozart, Offenbach and Verdi to newly written and site-specific operas in unconventional settings, from Copenhagen apartments and the dry dock at Holmen to collaborations across the Nordic countries, Europe, North America and Asia.

She has developed and produced a wide range of critically acclaimed and award-nominated works and has collaborated with institutions such as The Royal Danish Opera, The Danish National Opera and GöteborgsOperan. Alongside this, she has held key roles as Head of Education at the Danish National School of Performing Arts and as guest professor at Ernst Busch Hochschule für Schauspielkunst in Berlin.

We have been looking for an artistic director able to embrace the festival’s broad spectrum: from dedicated opera lovers to those who have yet to discover that opera can be for them. With Louise, we gain a leader with vast knowledge, a strong national and international network and a genuine curiosity about how opera is evolving globally.

A unifying platform

Copenhagen Opera Festival serves as a central platform within Denmark’s opera ecosystem. We connect established opera houses and stages with the independent field and new artistic voices, not only during the festival itself, but throughout the year as new productions, formats and collaborations are developed.

With Louise Beck, we strengthen this work. She brings an extensive network and a proven ability to build collaborations across art forms, institutions and national borders. Together, we will continue to develop the festival as a dynamic and committed platform for the future of opera, locally, nationally and internationally.

Louise Beck will take up the position on 1 September 2026 and, in close collaboration with Festival Director Rikke Frisk and the board, will be responsible for the festival’s artistic development and direction over the next four years.

Copenhagen Opera Festival 2026 will take place from 13 to 23 August, and Louise Beck’s artistic work can also be experienced at this year’s festival.

“Copenhagen Opera Festival is an indispensable platform where tradition and innovation meet. I look forward to helping strengthen and expand this work” siger Louise Beck. 

DANISH
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Foundations and partners

Listen to the album
Den Sidste Olie

Den Sidste Olie was staged by Louise Beck and nominated for a Reumert Award in the category Opera of the Year in 2022. Here you can listen to the album featuring Niels Rønsholdt, Katinka Fogh Vindelev, Morten Frandsen, Nana Bugge Rasmussen, Richard Låås, Athelas Sinfonietta and James Sherlock. Den Sidste Olie was initiated by Niels Rønsholdt, produced by OPE-N in collaboration with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and presented by Copenhagen Opera Festival.

>  Images from productions of Den Sidste Olie, Hundeliv and LOL – Laughing Out Lonely, which premiered in Canada earlier this year.

For press enquiries, plese contact: mads@operafestival.dk

Louise Beck
about

• Educated at the University of Copenhagen and Wimbledon School of Arts in London.

• Scenographer, director and artistic director of OPE-N (formerly OperaNord) since 1996.

• Made her Danish debut in 1996 with Gudruns 4. sang, a spectacular opera by Peter Laugesen and Icelandic composer Haukur Tómasson. Received the Nordic Council Music Prize.

• Has worked as a scenographer on productions including Mozart’s Don Juan, Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Verdi’s Aida.

• Appointed by the Danish Arts Foundation as music theatre facilitator and initiator of the three-year development programme TRAVERS, created in collaboration with national and international partners. The programme brought together several hundred artists across disciplines and borders and presented a series of significant music theatre works.

• Has collaborated with, among others, Copenhagen Opera Festival, DR, the Royal Danish Opera, the Royal Danish Theatre, Den Jyske Opera, GöteborgsOperan, Aarhus Festival, SPOR Festival, Aalborg Opera Festival, Festspillene in Bergen and a wide range of theatres across Denmark.

• Former head of studies at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Danish National School of Performing Arts, as well as guest professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. She has also served as a mentor in the Danish Performing Arts Development Platform and is co-founder of the international talent development programme Travers.