About / Biography
Tim Hopkins is a stage director, scenographer, film maker, performer, creative director and digital artist.
He has directed productions in the UK and internationally for The Royal Opera, ENO, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, The Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Almeida Opera, South Bank Centre London, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, English Touring Opera, Sage Gateshead, Channel 4, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Artists Projects, Brighton Festival, Staatsoper Hannover, Bayerische Staatsoper Festspiele, Teatro Dell’Opera Roma, Theatre Basel, Bühnen Graz, Festival Alternative Lyrique (Paris), Glimmerglass Festival, Wexford Festival, Dublin Grand Opera, Batignano Opera Festival.
These include historic and contemporary pieces, and original projects he has created solo or made in collaboration. He is also commissioned as a Creative Director (BBC Proms Music Walk; Occupation WNO, The Space; et al)
He was a National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts Fellow (2001-2005), and Arts & Humanities Research Council Fellow at the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex (2007-2012). His relationship with Sussex continues part-time through a Research Fellowship in experimental music theatre.
Recent : States of Innocence Brighton Festival 2024; Empathy Machine, with composer Rob Thomas, Opera in Virtual Reality addressing conflict, (funded by Arts Council England, partners V & A Museum, Glyndebourne, Artists and Engineers, CROMT); Melancholy Artefacts with Judith Weir, (music / media performance commemorating closing months of WW1, developed for 1418NOW w Brighton Festival); Encore! (London Sinfonietta 50th Anniversary, SBC) Les Barricades Mystérieuses, Augmented Reality pieces for the streets of Paris; Kagel – Turning Points (King’s Place, London Sinfonietta).
Current : Robot Opera – with composer Evelyn Ficarra and Aalborg, Denmark. Four Quartets on Film – new films responding to work by Judith Weir, Joe Cutler and Helen Grime (NMC recordings, Strangelove, Arts Council England.) Premiere Aldeburgh Cinema, Aldeburgh Festival 2023.
Four Quartets on Film (2023)
“Beautiful, following the form of the music with real insight: I would love this to be people’s first experience of the piece…
Very moving in many places, an ingenious balance between sound and vision.” – Judith Weir