Rodula Gaitanou was born in Athens and studied violin at the Mousikoi Orizontes Conservatory, musicology at the Sorbonne, opera direction at Université Paris 8 – Saint-Denis, and movement at the Laboratoire d’Étude du Mouvement at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. She is a former member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
At the Göteborg Opera, she has directed Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ariadne auf Naxos and a new production of Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci.
Her other productions include La clemenza di Tito at Bergen National Opera; Don Quichotte, Un ballo in maschera, La traviata, and The Queen of Spades at Opera Holland Park; Pagliacci at Teatro Nacional São Carlos in Lisbon; Vanessa, L’oracolo, and Mala vita at Wexford Festival Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor, Aida, and La fanciulla del West at Opera Hedeland; Guillaume Tell at Victorian Opera in Melbourne; La cenerentola at Teatro Verdi in Trieste; Tosca at Xi’an Concert Hall in China; and Così fan tutte and La cenerentola at the Greek National Opera.
She has also directed L’isola disabitata at both the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio and Hobart Baroque in Tasmania. At the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she has staged Ariadne, Alexandre bis, San Giovanni Battista, and The Cooper. For British Youth Opera, she has directed Riders to the Sea, Savitri, and The Bartered Bride, and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in collaboration with Scottish Opera, Betrothal in a Monastery. She also created a new version of Carmen for the King’s Head Theatre in London and staged Dichterliebe at the ROH Linbury Studio.
Rodula Gaitanou was nominated for Director of the Year at the International Opera Awards in 2019. Her production of Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Hedeland was nominated for Best Opera Production at the 2019 CPH Awards in Denmark. Her stagings of Don Quichotte and Vanessa at Wexford Festival Opera were nominated for Best Opera at the Irish Times Theatre Awards (2020, 2017), and L’isola disabitata at Hobart Baroque received two Helpmann Award nominations in Australia in 2013 – for Best Direction and Best Opera Production.
She has also directed revivals of Royal Opera House productions in London, Sydney, Gothenburg and Valencia.