Bio
Menila Moineaux
"Unique and thought-provoking", Menila Moineaux (she/her) is an early career Burmese-Australian opera director, currently based in Germany. She was one of ten semi-finalists in the 2023 European Opera Directing Prize and is a 2022 graduate of the Verona Accademia per l’Opera Italiana, where she completed a Master in Opera Directing with results amongst the highest in her cohort, generously supported by the Rose Mandelbaum Travelling Scholarship.
In the 2023-24 season, Menila directed a "gripping" Pagliacci for The Cooperative and worked on Une folle journée: a Mozart and Da Ponte Gala for the Salzburger Festspiele (dir. Davide Livermore). For Theater Münster, where she is currently engaged as a staff director, Menila led revivals of Madrigale (dir. Tom Ryser) and Rigoletto (dir. Cordula Däuper), and assisted on premieres of MASS (dir. Tom Ryser), Der Schmied von Gent (dir. Magdalena Fuchsberger), Carmen (dir. Andrea Schwalbach), Zoroastre (dir. Georg Schütky), and Doktor Ox (dir. Anna Weber).
In the 2022-2023 season and alongside her studies, Menila worked on MASS (Bernstein) at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (dir. Damiano Michieletto), Pagliacci at the Macerata Opera Festival (dir. Alessandro Talevi), Simon Boccanegra at the Festival Verdi - Teatro Regio di Parma (dir. Valentina Carrasco), La traviata at Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre (dir. Danilo Coppola), Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) at the Luglio Musicale Trapanese (dir. Danilo Coppola), and Dalinda (Donizetti – world premiere) with the Berliner Operngruppe (dir. Giulia Randazzo).
Founding The Cooperative in 2019 and combining lifelong passions for opera and social justice, Menila made her directorial debut with The Consul (Menotti) in 2020. In 2021, she directed Sāvitrī (Holst), Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck), Iphigénie en Tauride (Gluck) and Tosca at The Cooperative.
With a background in musicology and singing, and proficient in English, German, Italian, and French, Menila also holds a Bachelor of Music Studies with First Class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she studied on full scholarship. She is a grateful recipient of grants from the Wagner Society of NSW and the Australia Council for the Arts.
Above all, Menila believes passionately in creating art that engages, benefits, and changes the world around us. Art is inherently political, and she invites her audiences into a space of public dreaming, from which they may re-emerge ready to confront and challenge issues in our wider society.
Pagliacci
Ruggero Leoncavallo
The Cooperative
August 3, 4 | 2023
Conductor: Joanna Drimatis | Toby Wong (August 4)
Director & Site-Specific Production Design: Menila Moineaux
Producer: Samanta Lestavel
Lighting: Bec Moret
Assistant Director and Stage Manager: Emma Whitehead
Photo Credit: Terence Bright and Nathaniel Kong
Tosca
Giacomo Puccini
Giuseppe Giacosa
Luigi Illica
The Cooperative
June 17, 19 | 2021
Conductor: Edwin Spark
Director & Site-Specific Production Design: Menila Moineaux
Light Design: Minjayati Angelo
Stage Manager: Fi Peel
Photo Credit: David Geer and Stanley Anagnostou
Sāvitrī
Gustav Holst
The Cooperative
February 11, 12, 14 | 2021
Conductor: Edwin Spark
Director & Site-Specific Production Design: Menila Moineaux
Photo Credit: Simon Ross and Antoine Veling
Iphigénie en Tauride
Christoph Willibald Gluck & Nicolas-François Guillard
The Cooperative
24, 25 April | 2021
Conductor: Edwin Spark
Director & Site-Specific Production Design: Menila Moineaux
Light Design: Minjayati Angelo
Stage Manager: Fiona Lloyd-Harding
- Orfeo ed Euridice
Christoph Willibald Gluck & Ranieri de' Calzabigi
The Cooperative
17, 19, 20 March | 2021
Conductor: Edwin Spark
Director & Site-Specific Production Design: Menila Moineaux
Light Design: Minjayati Angelo
Heute Nacht oder nie - die große Operngala der Spielzeit
Semi-Staging
Theater Münster
August - November 2024
Conductor: Henning Ehlert
Moderation: Katharina Kost-Tolmein
Semi-Staging: Menila Moineaux
Scenic Design: Nele Schröder
Costume: Philipp Winkler
Dramaturgy: Giulia Fornasier
Light Design: Meike Parys
Photo Credit: Sandra Then
Scenic Work
Operngala
VariousTheater Münster24 September, 29 October, 4 November | 2023Conductor: Henning EhlertModeration: Katharina Kost-TolmeinConcert placing: Menila MoineauxCostume Design: Philipp Winkler
Opernflash
Theater Münster23 SeptemberA site-specific operatic flashmob in Münster's PrinzipalmarktProject coordination: Menila MoineauxDramaturgy: Ana Edroso-Stroebe
