Jeanne Pansard-Besson was a finalist in the ninth European Opera Directing Prize and semi-finalist in the Ring Award 17. She has directed productions including La Tragédie de Carmen (Royal Academy of Music), La Scala di seta (UK/Italian tour), Opera Highlights (Scottish Opera), Don Pasquale (NOF-Nouvel Opéra Fribourg/Neue Oper Freiburg), La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers (Vache Baroque Festival), and has worked with directors such as Mariame Clément, Laurent Pelly, Simon McBurney, Michael Boyd, Nicola Raab, Bruno Ravella in theatres in the UK and in Europe, including Glyndebourne Festival, Royal Opera House, Opéra Comique, Opéra de Lorraine, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Garsington Opera. She is currently developing a new opera as librettist, dramaturg and director, in collaboration with composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, with support from the National Opera Studio, King’s College London and the University of Oxford. The documentary film she made about a company of puppeteers in Cambodia was nominated in several international festivals. Her book, Imagining Rome’s Foundation in Ancient Visual Culture, based on her PhD in Classics from the University of Cambridge, is about to be published by Routledge.