Juana Inés Cano Restrepo

Juana Inés Cano Restrepo (born 1991) is an Austrian-Colombian director based in Lyon. She gained her first experience as an assistant director at the Graz Opera from 2010 onwards and has since collaborated with, amongst others, Claus Guth, Philipp Stölzl, Olivier Tambosi and Vasily Barkhatov in New York, Madrid, Munich, Vienna, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence and Bregenz.

She made her directing debut in 2016 at Graz Opera with *Susanne’s Secret*. This was followed by key works from the repertoire such as *Carmen* and *La Bohème* in Hildesheim, *Rigoletto* in Freiberg, *The Tales of Hoffmann* and *The Flying Dutchman* in Chemnitz, *Madama Butterfly* in Regensburg and *Don Giovanni* at the Folkwang University of the Arts. She also made her house debuts at the MusikTheater an der Wien (‘María de Buenos Aires’) and the Staatsoperette Dresden (‘La Bayadère’), was responsible for the Austrian premiere of Trojahn’s ‘Euridice – Die Liebenden, blind’ at the Neue Oper Wien, and wrote her own libretti (‘Musenstaub und Musenkuss’ and ‘Die Stimme der Meerjungfrau’).

Outside the German-speaking world, she staged “La Damnation de Faust” to mark the 100th anniversary of the Liepāja Opera and made her French debut with Martinů’s “Greek Passion” at the “Pulsations” festival in Bordeaux under the musical direction of Raphaël Pichon. She was invited by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence to take part in the 2026 “Women Opera Makers” workshop led by Katie Mitchell.

In the 26/27 season, she will make her debut at the MiR with *Der Räuber Hotzenplotz* and will direct *Les Contes d’Hoffmann* at the Regensburg State Theatre.