Ellen Seligman

Ellen Seligman is an opera director. She is committed to creating performances that move the audience through the actors' full presence on stage. She works holistically with opera, where the musical, dramatic and scenic elements together illuminate the human issues and relationships within the work. Her aim is for the characters to have their own inner credibility and for the motivation of the actor's movements and expressions to come from within. Ellen is the former Dean of the Opera School at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her background is as a musician in the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, where she became permanently employed after graduating from the Norwegian Academy of Music. She studied opera direction at the Stockholm Academy of Opera and has worked as a director at the Folkoperan in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Opera and Oslo Baroque Opera, among others. She also specialises in coaching professional musicians and singers in performance preparation and body use, and teaches at the Institute for Musicians' Health and Movement.