Robert Carsen Director

Season 22/23 Artist

Born in Canada, Robert Carsen studied acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, before choosing a career in stage direction, lighting design and scenography. 

He staged for the Paris Opera Manon Lescaut, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Lohengrin, Nabucco, The Tales of Hoffmann, Alcina, Rusalka, Les Boréades, Capriccio, Tannhäuser, Elektra, The Magic Flute. 

Recent productions include Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Salzburg Festival, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria in Florence, Julius Caesar (Battistelli) in Rome, Ôsud (Janáček) in Brno, Arabella at the Zurich Opera, Idomeneo in Madrid and Rome and Océane (Glanert) at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. He also directed for the Aix-en-Provence Festival A Midsummer Night's Dream, Orlando, The Magic Flute, Sémélé and Rigoletto; at the Opéra Comique, Platée and Les Fêtes vénitiennes; at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Armide, Iphigénie en Tauride and Orfeo ed Euridice; at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Candide, My Fair Lady and Singin’ in the Rain. 

Further credits include Falstaff and Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Dialogues des carmélites in Amsterdam, Milan and London; Rinaldo and L’incoronazione di Poppea in Glyndebourne; La Traviata for the reopening of La Fenice in Venice; Don Giovanni, Co2 (Battistelli) and La Fanciulla del West for La Scala, Milan; Ariadne auf Naxos in Munich; Mefistofele and Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Wagner's Ring cycle in Cologne, Venice, Barcelona and Madrid; Janaček and Puccini's cycles at the Vlaamse Opera; Carmen in Amsterdam. 

He was artistic director and set designer on several exhibitions in Paris (Grand Palais, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Galliera, Beaux-Arts), London and Chicago. Officier des Arts et des Lettres, Robert Carsen received, in 2021, the International Opera Award, the Fanco Abbiati Prize, the Spanish Ópera XXI Award, and the Italian Opera Star Award.