Macbeth

Teodor Currentzis ist seit 2010 Künstlerischer Direktor des Staatlichen Opernhauses und Balletttheaters in Perm/Russland. Er studierte Violine am Konservatorium seiner Heimatstadt Athen sowie Dirigieren in St. Petersburg bei Ilja Musin. Internationalen Ruhm erwarb er sich mit seinem 2004 gegründeten Originalklangensemble Musica Aeterna, mit dem er u.a. im Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, im Wiener Konzerthaus, im Amsterdamer Concertgebouw, in der Berliner Philharmonie und im KKL Luzern gastierte. Als Operndirigent war er u.a. mit Bergs Wozzeck und Mozarts Don Giovanni am Moskauer Bolschoi­ Theater, Verdis Macbeth an der Bayerischen Staatsoper und an der Opéra Bastille, Schostakowitschs Lady Macbeth von Mzensk am Opernhaus Zürich, Bizets Carmen und Mozarts Così fan tutte in Baden-Baden und einem Purcell-Abend sowie Wagners Tristan und Isolde am Teatro Real in Madrid zu erleben. Bei den Bregenzer Festspielen dirigierte er 2010 Weinbergs Die Passagierin. Er arbeitete mit Orchestern wie dem Mahler Chamber Orchestra sowie den Münchner und den Wiener Philharmonikern. Bereits dreimal wurde er mit dem renommierten russischen Theaterpreis «Die goldene Maske» ausgezeichnet. Zurzeit erscheint bei Sony ein Mozart/da Ponte-Zyklus unter seiner Leitung. Die Figaro-Einspielung erhielt 2014 den «Echo Klassik». Im Sommer 2015 gab er mit Strawinskys Perséphone und Tschaikowskis Iolantha seinen Einstand beim Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Am Opernhaus Zürich war er zuletzt mit dem Orchestra La Scintilla und einem Rameau-Programm konzertant zu erleben und leitete erst kürzlich die Neuproduktion von Macbeth.

Since the beginning of the 2023/24 season, Joana Mallwitz has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, making her the first woman to lead one of Berlin’s major orchestras. In 2020, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival with Mozart’s "Così fan tutte". She has also conducted new productions at the Semperoper Dresden, Dutch National Opera Amsterdam, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Frankfurt Opera, and the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.
She appears regularly with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Munich Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, and Orchestre de Paris.
When she took up her position at Theater Erfurt in the 2014/15 season, she became the youngest General Music Director in Europe. In 2018, she moved to the Staatstheater Nürnberg in the same capacity and was named "Conductor of the Year" one year later.
In 2024, the documentary film "Joana Mallwitz – Momentum" by Günter Atteln was released about her. Recently, she made her debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Born in Hildesheim, Joana Mallwitz studied at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover. She is a recipient of the Bavarian Order of Merit. In 2023, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her long-standing work in music education and the promotion of young talent.

Barrie Kosky was Artistic Director and Chief Stage Director of the Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2022. He directs at major opera houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Vienna State Opera, as well as at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals, the Glyndebourne Festival, and at theatres including the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Schauspiel Frankfurt. In 1996, he was Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival, and from 2001 to 2005, he served as Co-Director of the Schauspielhaus Wien. His award-winning production of "The Magic Flute" (together with 1927) at the Komische Oper Berlin has since been seen in over 45 cities worldwide. For "From the House of the Dead" at the Hanover State Opera, he received the theatre prize "Der Faust" in 2009, and for "Castor et Pollux" at the English National Opera, he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 2011. His Bayreuth production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" was named "Performance of the Year" in the 2017 Opernwelt critics’ poll. Under his leadership, the Komische Oper Berlin was named "Opera House of the Year" for the 2012/13 season, followed in 2015 by the International Opera Award in the category "Ensemble of the Year." Barrie Kosky has been named "Director of the Year" several times, including in 2014 at the International Opera Awards, in 2016 in the Opernwelt critics’ poll, and in 2020 by the magazine Die deutsche Bühne. In 2022, he received the Order of Merit of Berlin and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2024. At the Zurich Opera House, Barrie Kosky has staged "La fanciulla del West," "Macbeth," "Eugene Onegin," "Die Gezeichneten," "Boris Godunov," and "Manon Lescaut."

Klaus Grünberg, a native of Hamburg, studied stage design under Erich Wonder in Vienna and has since worked as a freelance stage and lighting designer at theatres and opera houses across Europe, as well as in Kuwait and Buenos Aires. For many years, he has collaborated with composer and director Heiner Goebbels, as well as with Tatjana Gürbaca and Barrie Kosky. His recent works include "The Magic Flute," "Macbeth," "Werther," "Lucia di Lammermoor," and "The Merry Widow" at the Zurich Opera House; "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" and the Berlin-themed evening "…und morgen könnt ihr mich!" at the Komische Oper Berlin; "Ulisse" and "La Juive" at the Frankfurt Opera; "Simon Boccanegra" at the Aalto Music Theatre Essen; "Rusalka" at the Hanover State Opera; "L’incoronazione di Poppea" at the Theater Bremen; and Gogol’s "The Government Inspector" at the Burgtheater Vienna. In 1999, Klaus Grünberg opened MOMOLMA (Museum of More or Less Modern Art) in Hamburg.

Anne Kuhn, born in Chemnitz, studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. After numerous stage and set design assistantships, including with Beatrice Schultz, Klaus Grünberg, and Wolfgang Gussmann, she has been collaborating regularly with stage and lighting designer Klaus Grünberg since 2008. In addition, she realizes her own independent projects. Anne Kuhn lives and works as a stage designer and illustrator in Berlin and Hamburg. She has worked on productions such as "The Nose" (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), "Don Giovanni" and "Simplicius Simplicissimus" (Theater Bremen), "Rusalka" (Hanover State Opera), "Der Freischütz" (Aalto Music Theatre Essen), as well as at the Komische Oper Berlin on "Frühlingsstürme," "Pelléas et Mélisande," and "Akhnaten." At the Zurich Opera House, she collaborated with Klaus Grünberg on the stage designs for "Macbeth" and "The Merry Widow" (directed by Barrie Kosky), as well as for "Aida," "The Magic Flute," "Werther," and "Lucia di Lammermoor" (directed by Tatjana Gürbaca).

Klaus Bruns studied stage and costume design at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. For almost 30 years, he has worked as a costume designer at theatres including those in Stuttgart, Graz, Frankfurt, Zurich, Cologne, and Leipzig, as well as at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Schaubühne and Deutsches Theater Berlin, and the Residenztheater and Kammerspiele in Munich. He has a long-standing collaboration with Karin Henkel. In opera, he has worked with Barrie Kosky, Michael Talke, Andreas Homoki, Olivier Tambosi, Michael Schulz, Harry Kupfer, Götz Friedrich, and Christof Loy, among others, at the three Berlin opera houses, the Nuremberg Opera, Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Leipzig Opera, Teatro Regio Turin, Theater an der Wien, the National Theatres in Mannheim and Weimar, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. His collaborations with Barrie Kosky include "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the Hanover State Opera; "Rusalka," "Moses und Aron," "Eugene Onegin," "Fiddler on the Roof," and "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" at the Komische Oper Berlin; "La fanciulla del West," "Macbeth," "Die Gezeichneten," "Eugene Onegin," "Boris Godunov," and "Manon Lescaut" at the Zurich Opera House; "Prince Igor" at the Opéra Bastille in Paris; "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and "Agrippina" at the Hamburg State Opera. For the costumes in Kosky’s Bayreuth production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg," Klaus Bruns was named "Costume Designer of the Year" by Opernwelt magazine in 2018. In 2024, he received the Oper! Award for Best Costume Designer for the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s "Animal Farm" in Amsterdam.

Ernst Raffelsberger stammt aus Gmunden, Oberösterreich. Er studierte Musikpädagogik und Kirchenmusik an der Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien (Chorleitung bei Prof. Erwin Ortner) und anschliessend Chordirigieren am Salzburger Mozarteum bei Prof. Walter Hagen-Groll. Von 1983 bis 1986 war er Kapellmeister der Wiener Sängerknaben. In dieser Zeit leitete er das Ensemble in Wien und auf Tourneen durch Europa, Südafrika, Kanada und die USA. Ab 1986 war Ernst Raffelsberger Chordirektor und Kapellmeister am Landestheater Salzburg (Mitwirkung bei der Salzburger Mozartwoche und den Salzburger Festspielen). 1989 wurde er von Donald Runnicles als Chordirektor und Kapellmeister an das Theater in Freiburg/Breisgau berufen. Seit Herbst 1993 ist Ernst Raffelsberger am Opernhaus Zürich als Chordirektor engagiert. Hier hat er inzwischen über 100 Premieren betreut und mit vielen namhaften Dirigenten wie Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta und Franz Welser-Möst zusammengearbeitet. Gastspiele mit dem Opernhaus Zürich führten ihn nach Wien, London, Paris und Tokio. Zahlreiche CD- und DVD-Aufnahmen dokumentieren diese Arbeit. Im Sommer 2012 begann zusätzlich seine Tätigkeit als Chordirektor der Salzburger Festspiele. Er ist dort für die Produktionen der Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor verantwortlich. In seiner ersten Festspielsaison kam es u. a. zu einer erfolgreichen Zusammenarbeit mit Riccardo Muti und Sir Simon Rattle.

Claus Spahn was chief dramaturge at the Zurich Opera House during Andreas Homoki’s tenure as artistic director. There, he supervised music theater projects by Wolfgang Rihm, Helmut Lachenmann, George Benjamin, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and world premieres by Heinz Holliger, Christian Jost, and Stefan Wirth. As a production dramaturge, he worked with directors such as Sebastian Baumgarten, Herbert Fritsch, Jan Philipp Gloger, Tatjana Gürbaca, Andreas Homoki, Barrie Kosky, Nadja Loschky, David Marton, and Evgeni Titov. He also shares a close artistic partnership with the choreographer and former director of Zurich Ballet, Christian Spuck. For him, Spahn was involved in the development of the productions “Anna Karenina,” “Nussknacker und Mausekönig,” and “Monteverdi” in Zurich, he also wrote libretti for the ballets “Orlando” based on Virginia Woolf (world premiere in 2021 at the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet) and “Bovary” based on Gustave Flaubert (world premiere in 2023 at the Berlin State Ballet). Additionally, he is the librettist of the chamber opera “The Dream of You” by Swiss composer Xavier Dayer, which premiered in 2017 at the Zurich Opera House. Before joining the Zurich Opera House, Claus Spahn was the arts editor for 14 years at the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, where he was responsible for the music section. From 1990 to 1997, he worked as a freelance music journalist mainly for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bavarian Broadcasting. Claus Spahn was born in Germany, studied classical guitar in Freiburg im Breisgau, and completed training at the German School of Journalism in Munich.