Director

Julien Chavaz

Rigoletto

Biography

Swiss director Julien Chavaz is known for his work in contemporary opera and music theatre, and directed Rossini’s William Tell for Irish National Opera in 2022. In 2018 Chavaz’s Paris production of Shostakovich’s Moscow, Cheryomushki was shortlisted as Best Show of the Year by Le Monde. He is General Director of Theater Magdeburg, and was Artistic Director of Nouvel Opéra Fribourg from 2018–2022. Projects in 2024–25 include new productions of Bizet’s Carmen and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in Magdeburg, Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground at Grand Théâtre de Genève, as well as a revival of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Nancy. Other recent work includes Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (Korea National Opera), Peter Eötvös’s Der Goldene Drache (Grand Théatre de Genève), Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face, Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Théâtre de l’Athénée Paris), Eugene Onegin (Teatro Massimo Palermo), Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Nouvel Opéra Fribourg), Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Opera Zuid, Maastricht), Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Het Nationale Theater, The Hague and De Kleine Komedie, Amsterdam) and Marius Felix Lange’s Snow White. Chavaz directed a fully-staged version of Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri in the music theatre production Teenage Bodies (London, Zurich). His chamber opera Sholololo! was shortlisted at Festival Belluard Bollwerk International. Other projects have been presented at Arcola Theater (London), Opera Bolzano, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Comédie de Genève, and Tête à Tête Festival, London.

Nov 2024