Mariame Clément (born 1974) is a French opera director. Her first production, in 2004, featured Rossini's Il signor Bruschino and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the Opéra de Lausanne. She staged the first French performance of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot in 2016 and the first revival of Offenbach's 1860 Barkouf in 2018. Clément made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2024 with Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. In 2025 she directed Mozart's Così fan tutte for the season's opening performance at the Oper Frankfurt.
Life and career Clément was born in Paris in 1974; her mother is Iranian. She studied literature and art history at the École normale supérieure and then lectured French at Harvard University from 1997 to 1999. She moved to Berlin where she began working on a dissertation about Persian medieval miniatures. She was a volunteer in stage direction at the Berlin State Opera, and then worked as an assistant at opera houses including the Opéra National de Montpellier and the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg. She won a third prize at the European Opera Directing Competition in 2003, which prompted her first commission as a director in 2004 at the Opéra de Lausanne. There, she staged two short operas, Rossini's Il signor Bruschino and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, with scenes and costumes designed by Julia Hansen, with whom she collaborated regularly. Hansen was awarded the 2010 prize from the Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique de France for their work on Rameau's Platée at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg. In 2011 Clément directed Donizetti's Don Pasquale for the Glyndebourne Festival in a production that went on tour and was still played in 2022.
In 2012 Clément directed a museum exhibition, Die Leidenschaften (The Passions), at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden. She staged the world premiere of Philippe Hurel's Les Pigeons d'argile at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse in 2014. In 2016 she staged the first French performance of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg. In that venue she also directed in 2018 the first staged performance of Offenbach's Barkouf after the opera's 1860 premiere. At the Grand Théâtre de Genève, she staged Donizetti's Tudor operas, Anna Bolena in 2021, Maria Stuarda in 2023, and Roberto Devereux in 2024. She directed Die schweigsame Frau by R. Strauss at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Léhar's Die lustige Witwe at the Vienna Volksoper, both in 2023. She directed Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2023, portraying the title character, sung by Andrey Zhilikhovsky. His performance was described by Richard Bratby of The Spectator as, "compelling without glamourising", with a "cold hard chill" in his voice. That cynicism in his interactions with the women occurred in the banquet scene, when he was sitting on a giant cream cake.
Clément made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2024, directing Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, with Benjamin Bernheim in the title role and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Marc Minkowski. She directed Mozart's Così fan tutte for the opening performance of the 2025/26 season at the Oper Frankfurt, conducted by Thomas Guggeis, with Teona Todua as Fiordiligi and Kelsey Lauritano as Dorabella. The reviewer from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Clément opened, during the overture, with a scene of a contemporary double wedding that froze as a tableau at the point when Fiordiligi was supposed to sign the contract (i.e. the onstage actors suddenly assumed a still and silent pose, such that they resembled a sculpted group or tableau, representing stopped or frozen time). The wedding scene's stage action returned to that moment near the end of the performance, and following the emotional turmoil between the four protagonists. With the wedding scene revived, the two wedding couples then dismissed the guests, and partied alone. The reviewer noted Clément's subtle shaping of the characters and their interactions.
Clément is married; she has lived in Berlin and then returned to Paris.
Productions Mozart: Così fan tutte, Oper Frankfurt 2025 Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne Festival 2024 Gounod Roméo et Juliette, Berlin State Opera, Berlin 2024 Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann, Salzburg Festival 2024 Donizetti: Roberto Devereux, Grand Théâtre de Genève 2024 Donizetti: Maria Stuarda, Genève 2023 Mozart: Don Giovanni, Glyndebourne Festival R. Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe 2023 Léhar: Die lustige Witwe, Vienna Volksoper 2023 Rossini: Il turco in Italia Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Genève 2021 Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Staatstheater Nürnberg 2018 Offenbach: Barkouf, Strasbourg 2018 Wagner: Das Liebesverbot, Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg 2016. Donizetti: Poliuto, Glyndebourne Festival 2015 Philippe Hurel: Les Pigeons d'argile, Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse 2014 Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Oper Dortmund 2013 Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel, Palais Garnier, Paris 2013 Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg 2012 Handel: Agrippina, Vlaamse Opera, Gent 2012 Donizetti: Don Pasquale, Glyndebourne Festival 2011 R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, Strasburg 2011 Rameau: Platée, Strasburg 2010 Rameau: Castor et Pollux, Theater an der Wien 2010 Cavalli: Giasone, Vlaamse Opera 2009 Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia, Bern Theatre 2007 Offenbach: La Belle Hélène, Strasburg 2006 Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims, Bern Theatre, Oviedo, Tel-Aviv 2005 Rossini: Il signor Bruschino, Puccini: Gianni Schicchi, Opéra de Lausanne 2004
References
External links
Mariame Clement / director Operabase Mühlemann, Marianne : Eine Begegnung mit Opernregisseurin Mariame Clément (interview, in German) Der Bund, 7 September 2009