After graduating from the Conservatoire of his home town Rouen with four first prizes and after completing an extensive university training, Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau turns his attention to stage direction working as an assistant with Jean-Claude Auvray, John Dew, Stéphane Braunschweig, Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff.
Most recently he has staged Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel for the Opéra National du Rhin (broadcast on France 3) and Gianni Schicchi for the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival.
In 2010, Pierre-Emmanuel directed and designed the costumes of Grétry’s Amant jaloux for the Versailles Royal Opera and Paris Opéra Comique. Widely acclaimed by public and critics alike, the production was broadcast by Mezzo and France 2 and has since been released on DVD.
Since 2013 Rousseau has been collaborating on a regular basis with Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn where he directed and designed the sets and costumes of Il Turco in Italia, Viva la Mamma, with a revival in Basel and Treviso in 2015, Don Pasquale and Le Comte Ory which travelled in the 2018/2019 season to Rennes and Rouen, and Tancredi by Rossini in 2022.
He has been invited by the Opéra de Chambre de Genève for Offenbach’s Pomme d’Api and Monsieur Choufleuri, as well as for Mozart’s Re Pastore. Together with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra he offered a semi-staging of Mozart’s Schauspieldirektor.
Past seasons saw him directing new productions (sets, costumes and staging) of La Clemenza di Tito at both the Angers Nantes Opera and Rennes Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Strasbourg, Turin, Saint-Etienne, Soirées lyriques de Sanxay and Rouen (broadcast on France 3 and Culturebox), Les Fées du Rhin by Offenbach at both the Theater Biel Solothurn and Opéra de Tours, Le Pays du Sourire by Lehár in Tours, Don Pasquale for the San Sebastian Festival, Metz Opera and Blackwater Valley Opera Festival where he also presented L’Italiana in Algeri.
Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau has worked with many prestigious conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, Diego Fasolis, Francesco Lanzillotta, Antonello Allemandi, Ludovic Morlot, François-Xavier Roth, Jérémie Rhorer, Christophe Rousset, Marco Zambelli, Leonardo García Alarcón… alongside renowned singers like Karita Mattila, Sumi Jo, Kenneth Tarver, Véronique Gens, Frédéric Antoun, Štefan Margita, Hélène Guilmette, Julie Boulianne, Olga Peretyatko, Patricia Petibon, Bernard Richter, Cynthia Makris and Richard Troxell.
Engagements this season include new productions of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for the Opéra de Québec, Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict in Angers, Nantes and Rennes, Puccini’s Rondine for the Teatro Regio Torino and a revival of Rossini’s Tancredi for the Opéra de Rouen Normandie.
