Tom Hawkes
Tom Hawkes (director) was born in London, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Appointments include Artistic Director of Phoenix Opera, Director of Morley Opera and Director of Productions for Lyric Theatre Singapore. He is currently Director of Productions for Castleward Opera where his productions include L'étoile, Martha, Lucia di Lammermoor, La rondine, Rigoletto, (nominated for best production, Irish Theatre Awards 2005), and La bohème (nominated for best production, Irish Theatre Awards 2006).
As Director of Productions of the Handel Opera Society he directed new productions of Esther, Ezio, Hercules, Partenope, Radamisto, Rodrigo, and Xerxes at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Other Handel productions include Alceste, Oreste, Riccardo Primo, and Teseo for the English Bach Festival, and for the London Handel Society Ottone and Brockes Passion. For Sadler's Wells Theatre itself, he directed the British première of Alan Bush's Wat Tyler, and for New Sadler's Wells Opera, Hansel and Gretel, Die Csárdásfürstin, and Der Graf von Luxemburg. For the English National Opera at the London Coliseum he directed five productions including Un ballo in maschera, La gazza ladra, and La vie parisienne.
His productions for The English Bach Festival have been seen in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in Paris, Monte Carlo, and Versailles, and at festivals in Athens, Madrid, Granada, Peralada, Bologna, Siena, Viterbo, Vichy, and Dijon. Productions for the company include Castor et Pollux, Platée, Gluck's Alceste and Orphée, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and Mozart's Mitridate and Idomeneo.
He has directed productions all over the world including Austria, Belgium, Yugoslavia, the Republic of Ireland, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Trinidad. In September 2002 he directed Cavalli's Pompeo magno for the Varazdin Baroque Festival, winning the coveted Ivan Lukacic prize. For Opera Holland Park he has directed Iris, L'arlesiana, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Un ballo in maschera, La traviata, Adriana Lecouvreur, Werther, Die Fledermaus, Eugene Onegin, The Merry Widow, and, this season, Lakmé.