Lisenka Heijboer Castañón is a Dutch-Peruvian stage director and theatre maker whose practice is characterized by her search for collaborative process and space for sound. She looks to create work in which there is always a moment for joy, a presence of magic and room for chaos.
In 2023/24 she directed Cavalli’s Erismena at the Juilliard school, created a touring production of Cosi Fan Tutte with the Orchestra of the 18th century and collaborated with Davóne Tines on his song cycle performance MASS for the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam. At the end of this season, she directed John Adams and Peter Sellars’ The Gospel according to the other Mary at the Volksoper and the Wiener Festwochen for which she was awarded the prestigious Götz Friedrich Prize.
She made her main stage debut at Dutch National Opera in 2020 with a new creation: Faust [working title] (“an important contribution to the renewal of the genre of musical theatre: away from the museum right into the middle of social actuality” (Bachtrack).
Following this success, she created a new production for DNO, further exploring collaborative process in opera and new narratives; I have missed you forever premiered at the International Theater Amsterdam during the Opera Forward Festival 2022.
In the summer of 2022, she directed a new production of Tristan und Isolde together with Zack Winokur at Santa Fe Opera (‘There is a refreshing feeling of trust to it all, a sensible desire not to get in the way of what clearly remains to these young collaborators a basically human story — and a willingness, perhaps above all, to make space for the music.’ The New York Times).
Heijboer Castañón immersed herself in the creation of opera as assistant director, and later as co-director to Lotte de Beer. Besides her work with de Beer, she has assisted a star roster of stage directors including Pierre Audi, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Monique Wagemakers and Laurent Pelly, in houses including Dutch National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper and Oper Köln, in a broad range of repertoire from Stockhausen to Puccini. In 2019/20 she was appointed the Directing Fellow for the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School in New York.
As a young artist, Heijboer Castañón directed productions at The Royal Concertgebouw (La Voix Humaine), the Bochumer Symphoniker (Parsifal), and created and produced new work for Carnegie Hall (Through Movement), the NJO Muziekzomer (Over Orpheus), the Grachtenfestival (Vrouwenstemmen) and Opera Zuid (An die Ferne).