Biography

Jetske Mijnssen (1970) is directing in several European opera houses. Her next productions will be Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini at Theater Basel in 2009 and Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2010. In the season 07/’08 she directed Gioacchino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia in May 2008 at Opera Zuid and Maurice Ravel’s L'Enfant et les sortilèges in October 2007 at the Komische Oper Berlin.

The Komische Oper Berlin will revive her highly successful Pinocchio by Pierangelo Valtinoni in January 2009.

For children she directed Der kleine Schornsteinfeger by Benjamin Britten (2004) and Pinocchio by Pierangelo Valtinoni (2006) at the Komische Oper Berlin and Pollicino by Hans Werner Henze (2002) at the Nationale Reisopera, Enschede.

In 2004, Jetske Mijnssen directed Die Dreigroschenoper by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht at Opera Zuid, Maastricht.

From 2001 till 2007, Jetske Mijnssen together with Solita Stucken, set designer, formed the artistic board of Opera C&F, a chamber opera company. The first production was La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc, in 2003 followed a staged version of Diary of one who vanished by Leos Janacek. In 2005 she directed Phaedra and Cleopatra, 2 vrouwen based on Phaedra by Benjamin Britten and La mort de Cléopatre by Hector Berlioz.

In 2001, she participated in a directing workshop by Willy Decker at La Monnaie in Bruxelles. This workshop became the starting point of her career as a director.

From 1997 till 2002, Jetske Mijnssen has worked as a director-assistant at De Nederlandse Opera, De Vlaamse Opera, Le Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Nationale Reisopera with a.o. Guy Joosten, Peter Konwitschny, Harry Kupfer and Monique Wagemakers.

Jetske Mijnssen graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a master's degree in Dutch literature and poetry. Subsequently she took a four year stage-direction course at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, where she specialised in opera.