Elisabeth Manduell was born in London and moved to South Africa in 2006 where she pursued her love of singing. She graduated in 2018 with a BMus in Opera Performance from the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town under the tutelage of Hanna van Niekerk, George Stevens and Kamal Khan, and was involved in many productions there as an Assistant Director and Stage Manager. Elisabeth also had the fortunate experience of performing Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy. In 2019, Elisabeth’s journey then moved to Cape Town Opera where she became an Assistant Director and took on other various roles such as Company Manager, Social Media Manager and Resident Director, which sent her to the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Luxembourg. She has since assisted some of South Africa’s greatest directors such as; Matthew Wild, Alessandro Talevi, Steven Stead, Magdalene Minnaar and more in their various productions with Cape Town Opera such as; Die Zauberflöte (2016/17), Mandela Trilogy (2018), African Passion (2019), La Boheme (2020), Porgy & Bess (2020), Cosi fan tutte (2020), and Hänsel und Gretel (2021), La Boheme (2021), La Rondine (2021), Bon Appetit (2022), Le Nozze di Figaro (2022), L’elisir d’amore (2022), Master Class (2023), Tosca (2023), La Traviata (2023), The Sound of Music (2023 & 2024), Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi (2024), as well as milestone productions such as Noa Naamat's Porgy and Bess (2024) at the Beijing Music Festival which was the premier of Gershwin's opera in China. As a Resident Director at Cape Town Opera she has also directed several shows such as Pearl Fishers (2021 & 2023), Der Schauspieldirektor (2024), various Opera Blocks such a Twinkle Twinkle, Little Stars, Bubbles, and Jungle Journey as well as her first e-learning programme; Conduct Like A Pro. In 2025, Elisabeth moved to Bonn, Germany where she became the Regieassistentin und Abendspielleiterin for Theater Bonn.