Celine Ricci

Artistic & Stage Director

Céline is the Founder and Artistic Director of Ars Minerva, a performing arts organization based in San Francisco. Her productions include several 17th & 18th Centuries forgotten operas: La Cleopatra (1662) The Amazons (1676), La Circe (1665), Ifigenia in Aulide (1738), Ermelinda (1680). Her recent staging of Ermelinda garnered great critical praise: “Ricci and her cohort presented the most thrillingly inventive and alluring offering in the company’s five-year history” Joshua Kosman, The San Francisco Chronicle. In November 2021 she Will stage Messalina (1679) at ODC Theater.

Céline staged the San Francisco Girls Chorus Holiday Concert at the San Francisco Symphony in 2019. She is also currently developing a collaboration between Ars Minerva and the San Francisco Girls Chorus around Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans.

"Great delight"

Opera Today

Event Producer

Céline has created events collaborating with several San Francisco Bay Area organizations such as Humanities West, The Museum of Performance + Design, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco among others.

In March 2018, at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, she created Women of the Mediterranean. This event received great critical acclaim.

In July 2017, at the historic Lick Observatory, she launched the first step of Andromeda a Cosmic tale, a multidisciplinary event combining, music, astronomy and history.

"A cultural treasure"

The Berkeley Daily Planet

Concepts & Programs

Céline enjoys creating original atmospheres and programs. She art directed two albums for American label Sono Luminus: CIRQUE and LE BESTIAIRE.

"The experience of performing is approached with the same direct, uncomplicated delight that might accompany one’s walk along the Seine in the early morning, turned out of a café at the closing hour, the last chill of night clinging to the river, and the smell of baking bread spilling into the streets."