Elisabeth Manduell is a British-South African opera director and assistant director based in Germany. She currently works as Regieassistentin and Abendspielleiterin at Theater Bonn, where she collaborates on new productions across a diverse operatic repertoire and works alongside directors including Matthew Wild, Leo Muscato, Roland Schwab, and Peter Konwitschny. Alongside her work in the rehearsal room and performance management, she is also responsible for scenic rehearsals and the revival and maintenance of productions, working closely with singers to realise and sustain a production's dramatic language.

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Before relocating to Germany, Elisabeth spent six years with Cape Town Opera, where she held a variety of artistic and production roles including Assistant Director, Resident Director, Company Manager, Assistant Producer, and Social Media Manager. During this time, she worked on productions ranging from Mozart and Donizetti to Gershwin and Puccini, and toured extensively throughout South Africa and internationally. She was also part of significant landmark productions such as Noa Naamat's production of Porgy and Bess at the Beijing Music Festival, which marked the Chinese premiere of Gershwin's opera.

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As a director, Elisabeth has led productions of The Pearl Fishers, Der Schauspieldirektor, various Opera Blocks geared at children between the ages of 0 and 6 and an educational e-learning programme for Cape Town Opera. 

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Originally trained as a singer at the University of Cape Town's South African College of Music, Elisabeth brings a performer's understanding of music and text to her directing practice. Her work is driven by a fascination with psychological storytelling, visual metaphor, and the relationship between contemporary audiences and classical repertoire. She is particularly interested in creating theatrical worlds that newer audiences can relate to and aims to reveal the emotional and human truths at the heart of opera.