Romain Gilbert studied piano and opera singing at the Paris Conservatoire before transitioning to engineering and ultimately pursuing artistic and cultural management. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology and a Master’s degree in Music Management from the University of Paris–La Sorbonne.He began his career as Administrator of the Friends of the Paris Opera, a position he held for ten years. He gained experience in production management with prestigious institutions including the Théâtre du Châtelet, Accentus Chamber Choir, and the Opéra national de Paris. He also worked closely with pianist, composer, and television personality Jean-François Zygel and served as production manager for Les Musiciens du Louvre under the direction of Marc Minkowski.

Gilbert later shifted toward stage direction, assisting renowned directors such as Laurent Pelly (La Monnaie de Bruxelles), Ivan Alexandre (Drottningholm Opera, Royal Opera of Versailles, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Bordeaux Opera, and various productions in Italy), and Ivo van Hove, whose Diary of One Who Disappeared he revived on tour (Beijing, BAM Brooklyn, Budapest, Covent Garden). He also collaborated with Krystian Lada (Royal Opera House Copenhagen) and Claus Guth (Parsifal at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Samson in Aix-en-Provence, and Paris’s Opéra Comique).

He is a regular guest at the Bordeaux Opera, where he directed La Périchole (2018, later revived at the Royal Opera of Versailles), Carmen (2021), and Werther (2022). For the Palazzetto Bru Zane, he staged a double bill of Offenbach and Wachs works in Aix-en-Provence, Venice, and Paris, as well as their gala at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.

Gilbert has developed semi-staged projects with major orchestras including the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse. At the Philharmonie of Luxembourg, he created Les Quatre Saisons de Buenos Aires, Le Voyage de Don Quichotte, and La Fée Oriane.

Notable productions include La Périchole at the Salzburg Pentecost Festival and Festival Radio France, Così fan tutte at the Enescu Festival (Bucharest), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Baden-Baden and Bremen), Otello, Le Prophète, and La Clemenza di Tito at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. He also directed Orphée aux Enfers and Wozzeck at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

His touring productions include Die Fledermaus at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and venues across Germany and Spain, including Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife.

He served as Associate Director on La Vie Parisienne with designer Christian Lacroix, presented in Rouen, Tours, Liège, Limoges, Montpellier, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and revived in Versailles. He also created Ballad in RED, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, for the Musikkollegium Winterthur with harpist Emmanuel Ceysson.

Gilbert has directed Carmen in Rouen, Versailles, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Athens, and Dallas, where he also staged Roméo et Juliette. His La Gioconda debuted at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and will be revived this season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Upcoming productions include Die Zauberflöte in Bremen, Dortmund, Hamburg, and Bucharest.