Robert Carsen
Director

Robert Carsen was born in Canada and trained as an actor at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol before turning his attention to stage direction. He has directed a long list of outstanding productions, including Falstaff at London’s Royal Opera House and Milan’s La Scala; Don Giovanni, the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s CO² and Giulio Cesare at Milan’s La Scala; The Turn of the Screw, Platée, Agrippina and Wozzeck at the Theater an der Wien; Carmen, Fidelio and Dialogues des carmélites in Amsterdam; Ariadne auf Naxos in Munich; Armide at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; Mitridate at La Monnaie in Brussels; Rinaldo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne; Salomé in Turin; Iphigénie en Tauride in Chicago, Madrid, Toronto and London; Singing in the Rain at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Il trovatore at the Bregenz Festival; La traviata for the reopening of La Fenice in Venice; Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera House in London; Mephistopheles and Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; the Ring Cycle in Cologne; a Janaček cycle at the Flanders Opera; Richard III (Giorgio Battistelli) in Antwerp; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Orlando, Die Zauberflöte, Semele, and Rigoletto at the Aix Festival; Campra’s Les Fêtes vénitiennes in Toulouse; the world premiere production of Philippe Fénelon’s JJR at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva; Don Carlo at the Rhine Opera; L’Orfeo at the Lausanne Opera; The Love For Three Oranges and the world premiere production of Detlev Glanert’s Oceane at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper; Die Tote Stadt at Berlin’s Komische Oper; The Beggar’s Opera at the Bouffes du Nord and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva; Hänsel und Gretel in Zurich, and Idomeneo at the Teatro Real in Madrid. He has also directed numerous productions at the Paris Opera, including Manon Lescaut, Nabucco, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Lohengrin, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Alcina, Rusalka, Les Boréades, Capriccio, Tannhäuser, Elektra, and Die Zauberflöte. In addition, he has been the artistic director and designer for several exhibitions in Paris and Chicago. Robert Carsen was awarded the International Music Press Syndicate’s grand prize for his life’s work. He has also received the French critics’ prize on three occasions and the Abbiati Italian Critics’ prize on four occasions. During the 2019-2020 / 2020-2021seasons, he directed new productions of Idomeneo and Eugene Onegin at the Rome Opera, Arabella at the Zurich Opera, Don Carlo at La Fenice in Venice, Janáček’s Destiny in Brno, and Platée at the Theater an der Wien.