Lea Willeke wins directing competition for ‘L'elisir d'amore’ at Coburg State Theatre
The Coburg State Theatre selected a concept by Lea Willeke (director) and Bina Zinsmeister (set designer) for its directing competition. The competition was aimed at directors and set designers under the age of 35 who developed an independent and artistically convincing concept for Gaetano Donizetti's melodramma giocoso ‘L'elisir d'amore’. The opera will premiere on 14 March 2026 at the GLOBE Coburg.
Lea Willeke and Bina Zinsmeister's directing concept stood out among the 30 submissions thanks to its clear dramaturgy, finely nuanced characterisation and fresh interpretation of the comedic elements. Lea Willeke has already worked with Bina Zinsmeister, a graduate of the Weißensee Academy of Art, on joint university productions at the Eisler.
Lea Willeke (born in 1993 in Jena) is studying musical theatre direction at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. As a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Bank Foundation's ‘Akademie Musiktheater Heute’ (Academy of Music Theatre Today), she staged the chamber opera ‘Moira’, which premiered in October 2024 at the Frankfurt LAB with the Ensemble Modern. She is the winner of the Sustainability Award from the RING AWARD 2025. In the 2023/2024 season, she directed the children's opera Hamed und Sherifa by Zad Moultaka at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini in the Blackbox of the Leipzig Opera School, and the play development Dünnes Eis with the youth choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.
Lea Willeke (*1993 in Jena) studiert Musiktheaterregie an der Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. Als Stipendiatin der „Akademie Musiktheater Heute“ der Deutschen Bank Stiftung inszenierte sie die Kammeroper „Moira“, die im Oktober 2024 im Frankfurt LAB mit dem Ensemble Modern uraufgeführt wurde. Sie ist Preisträgerin des Nachhaltigkeitspreises vom RING AWARD 2025. In der Spielzeit 2023/2024 inszenierte sie am Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern die Kinderoper „Hamed und Sherifa“ von Zad Moultaka, „Suor Angelica“ von Giacomo Puccini in der Blackbox der Opernschule Leipzig sowie die Stückentwicklung „Dünnes Eis“ mit dem Jugendchor der Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.
Her libretto for the short operetta Die schrumpfende Stadt (The Shrinking City) premiered at the Short Operetta Festival in Bad Ischl as part of the European Capital of Culture year in July 2024. In 2023, she staged the world premiere of ‘D:/Faced’ by composer Sina Fani Sani at the Tischlerei der Deutschen Oper Berlin as part of ‘Neue Szenen VI’ (New Scenes VI) and Georg Kreisler's musical anti-romance ‘Du sollst nicht lieben’ (Thou Shalt Not Love) at the Theater Altenburg-Gera. In the summer of 2022, she directed the children's opera ‘Lohengrin’ as part of the Bayreuth Festival. In 2019, she made her directing debut with the musical theatre piece ‘Babbel’ at the Theater Altenburg-Gera.
Bina Zinsmeister is a graduate of the stage and costume design programme at the Weißensee Academy of Art and has designed stage and costume sets for the opera performances of ‘L'enfant et les sortilèges’ and ‘L'heure espagnole’ in 2022 at the Eisler. She also assisted with the children's opera ‘Lohengrin’ at the Bayreuth Festival in 2022.