AFS2023 Speakers

Rafael R. Villalobos

Opera stage Director

Speaker - Business as usual? The role of the arts and arts festivals in our time on Monday, 24 April | 15.00-16.30

2019 Princess of Girona Foundation Arts and Literature Award and winner of the 7th Opera Europa - Camerata Nuova Europäischer Opernregie-Preis, 2013, Rafael is making a name for himself as one of the most interesting young stage directors from Spain working in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and the UK. He has also been a finalist of the Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells Director Fellowship competition as well as an artist-in-residence at the Academy of Spain in Rome. He has recently been nominated as Best Young Director for the International Opera Awards in London, and has been awarded at Ring Award competition in Graz as well as the YAM awards.

Drawn to theatre and music at a very early age, Rafael R. Villalobos studied solfège and singing at the Conservatorio Cristóbal de Morales in his hometown, Seville. He gained a BA in Performing Arts from the RESAD [Royal School for Dramatic Arts] in Madrid, and went on to obtain first-class honours with distinction in an MA in Music as an Interdisciplinary Art at the University of Barcelona in conjunction with the ESMUC [Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya]. He has also studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and attended workshops and masterclasses with Vincent Dumestre, Eduardo Arroyo and Mario Gas.

Some recent works include Iphigénie en Tauride by Ch. W. Gluck -Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier-, Orphée by Ph. Glass -Teatro Real, Madrid-, L'Arbore di Diana by V. Martin i Soler -Theater an der Wien- and Tosca by G. Puccini -La Monnaie, Bruxelles and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona- next to conductors such as David Afkham, Alain Altinoglou or Michel Schonwandt. 

Rafael R. Villalobos