Barbara Diana
Director
Barbara Saeva Diana is a British-Italian performer, dramaturg and director. She was assistant to James Robert Carson for a production of Britten’s A midsummer night’s dream at the Aldeburgh festival, and directed her own production of Andrea Sartorio’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto in Oxford. In 2020 Barbara’s production of Britten’s The rape of Lucretia for Opera de Tenerife was halted by the pandemic. Barbara is associated artist for Odd Eyes Theatre, with whom she has collaborated in productions of #Haters (UK tour and film) and Close Up (at the New Diorama Theatre).
As a librettist, Barbara has written the text for the short opera ‘The phone call’, produced
by Tête-à-tête in collaboration with ENO, and has devised the text for the cantata ‘Sleep,
baby, sleep’, on the subject of child abuse.
Barbara also works as language coach in productions at Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera
House, and the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, collaborating with directors including Annabel
Arden, Robert Carsen, Mariame Clement, Richard Jones, Damiano Michieletto and Keith Warner, and conductors including Jakub Hrůša, Nicola Luisotti, Enrique Mazzola, Riccardo Minasi, Stefano Montanari, Daniel Oren and Sir Antonio Pappano.
Barbara holds a PhD from King’s College London with a thesis on the music dramaturgy of
Benjamin Britten, subsequently published (Benjamin Britten’s holy theatre: from opera-oratorio to theatre parable, London, 2011).
