Singer | actor | director | teacher
Mitch Riley is a singer, actor, director and teacher.
He began his career in 2010 with the Sydney Chamber Opera, performing works by Pascal Dusapin (O Mensch!, Passion), György Kurtág (...pas à pas - nulle part...) and Peter Maxwell-Davies (The Lighthouse), and giving world premieres of operas by Jack Symonds (Notes from Underground, I've Had Enough, Climbing Toward Midnight), Elliott Gyger (Fly Away Peter), Michael Smetanin (Mayakovsky) and Huw Belling (Victory over the Sun).
His encounter with the music of György Kurtág led him to question the relationship between music, gesture and the theater, and eventually to study at the Jacques Lecoq International Theater School in Paris, renowned in particular for its work around the body, movement and the mask. He also studied clowning with Vincent Rouche and Hervé Langlois, as well as puppetry with artists from the Compagnie Philippe Genty, La Nef and Les Anges au Plafond.
Since then, he has worked on various projects, including the creation of V-I-T-R-I-O-L by choreographer Francesca Bonato and composer Aurélien Dumont; Maman. Source, Origin, Cause., a play created and directed by Marta Tkaczuk; new operas by Jack Symonds (The Shape of the Earth) and Elliott Gyger (Oscar and Lucinda) with Sydney Chamber Opera; the creation of compositions by Elvio Cipollone and Gilles Schuehmacher with Ensemble Offrandes; and Perte, a work he directed and co-wrote with the clown Ruthy Scetbon. In 2022, he performed O Mensch! by Pascal Dusapin with pianist Vanessa Wagner as part of the Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije and the Louth Contemporary Music Festival. In 2023, he collaborated with the Quatuor Béla and La compagnie des choses humaines to create L'Homme est une fleur, a theatrical adaptation of music by György Kurtág.
Mitch is currently creating Le bel automne, a theatrical work based on the music of Olivier Messiaen and the work of Svetlana Alexievitch.
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Mitch resides in Rouen, France.
Artistic roles
Artistic Associate, Sydney Chamber Opera