Roméo et Juliette

Christopher Franklin studied conducting at the University of Illinois and at the Peabody Conservatory and received scholarships from the Tanglewood Music Center and the Hochschule für Musik Saarbrücken. At the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, he was awarded the Franco Ferrara Prize and won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi International Conducting Competition. In Treviso, he won the Bottega-Toti dal Monte Competition and was subsequently appointed assistant to Peter Maag at the Teatro Comunale di Treviso. He has received invitations to, among others, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro Comunale di Modena, and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Since 2024, he has been Chief Conductor of the Minnesota Opera, where he has recently conducted "Thaïs" and "Così fan tutte." He has led concerts, among others, at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Cologne Philharmonic, and the Konzerthaus Dortmund. He maintains a close collaboration with tenor Juan Diego Flórez, with whom he has performed on tour in numerous concert halls. Among his more recent highlights in opera are "Peter Grimes" and "The Turn of the Screw" in Valencia, Donizetti’s "Pia de Tolomei" in Pisa, Livorno, and Lucca, "I puritani" and Rossini’s "Otello" at the Liceu in Barcelona, "Tristan und Isolde" and "La bohème" in Trieste, "Il turco in Italia" in Bologna, "La sonnambula" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, "Die Fledermaus" in Tokyo, "Hänsel und Gretel" at the San Francisco Opera, as well as "Die Zauberflöte" and "Adriana Lecouvreur" at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.

Ted Huffman was born in New York. He studied at Yale University and participated in the San Francisco Merola Opera Program. The opera "Denis & Katya", created together with Philip Venables (Opera Philadelphia, Dutch National Opera, Music Theatre Wales, Opéra Montpellier, Opera Hannover), won the Fedora Generali Prize in 2019 and the Ivor Novello Award in 2020. With Philip Venables he also developed the opera "4.48 Psychosis" after Sarah Kane, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in London, received the UK Theatre Award for Opera, and was nominated for the Olivier Awards, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and the South Bank Awards, as well as "The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions" (among others Factory International Manchester, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bregenz Festival, Ruhrtriennale). In 2025 he directed the world premiere of Venables’s opera "We Are The Lucky Ones" at Dutch National Opera. Further directing work includes "The Time of Our Singing" at La Monnaie, "Rinaldo" in Frankfurt, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" at Deutsche Oper Berlin, "Le premier meurtre" at the Opéra de Lille, "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" at the Royal Danish Theatre, Luke Styles’s "Macbeth" at Glyndebourne, Ana Sokolović’s "Svádba" in Aix, "Les mamelles de Tirésias" among others in Brussels, Amsterdam and at the Aldeburgh Festival, as well as Monteverdi’s "L’incoronazione di Poppea" in Aix and "Street Scene" at the Paris Opéra. The world premiere of Stefan Wirth’s "Das Mädchen mit dem Perlenohrring" at Zurich Opera House was named "Best World Premiere 2022" by Opernwelt. In addition, "Madama Butterfly" (2017) and "Roméo et Juliette" (2023) were produced in Zurich.

Andrew Lieberman stammt aus Amerika und arbeitet an zahlreichen internationalen Bühnen im Bereich des Musiktheaters, des Sprechtheaters und des Musicals. Im Schauspiel entwarf er u.a. Bühnenbilder für das International Theater Amsterdam, die Royal Shakespeare Company und für diverse Theater am New Yorker Broadway. Er schuf das Bühnenbild für Händels Partenope in der Regie von Christopher Alden an der English National Opera, welches 2009 den «Lawrence Olivier Award» für die beste Opernproduktion gewann. Sein Bühnenbild für Aida wurde 2011 im amerikanischen Pavillon der Prager Quadriennale für Szenografie gezeigt. Mit Ted Huffman arbeitete er u.a. an der Royal Danish Opera für Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno und an der Opera Philadelphia für die Uraufführung von Denis & Katya von Philip Venables zusammen. Letztere Produktion war auch an der Staatsoper Hannover und der Oper Amsterdam zu sehen. Andrew Lieberman ist Preisträger des Princess Grace Award und war von 2008 bis 2019 Leiter der Bühnenbildabteilung an der New Yorker Universität Tisch School of the Arts. Zuletzt gestaltete er die Bühnenbilder zu Braunfels’ Die Vögel an der Opéra National du Rhin, Candide an der Opéra de Lyon, die Zauberflöte an der Oper Frankfurt und für Girl with a Pearl Earring in Zürich. Zu seinen nächsten Produktionen zählt u.a. die Uraufführung von 10 Days in a Madhouse an der Opera Philadelphia.

The Irish costume and set designer Annemarie Woods won the Ring Award in Graz in 2011 together with the British director Sam Brown. In joint productions with Sam Brown she designed, among others, "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" at the Teatro Sociale di Como, "Der Zigeunerbaron" at Stadttheater Klagenfurt, "Sigurd der Drachentöter" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s opera "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, and "La Cenerentola" at Lucerne Theatre. She also has a long-standing collaboration with director Oliver Mears, for whose productions of "Macbeth", "Salome", "L’elisir d’amore" and "Don Giovanni" she likewise designed the costumes and sets. Further works include "Candide" in Nancy, "Agrippina" in Limerick, "My Fair Lady" in Karlsruhe and "L’Heure espagnole/Gianni Schicchi" (directed by Bruno Ravella) at the Opéra National de Lorraine. With Ted Huffman she collaborated, among other projects, in Frankfurt on "Rinaldo", in Cologne on "Salome", in Montpellier on "Le Songe d’une nuit d’été", at Deutsche Oper Berlin on "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and in Zurich on "Madama Butterfly". She also designed the costumes for "Pagliacci/Cavalleria rusticana" in Amsterdam (directed by Robert Carsen), for "La traviata" at the Komische Oper Berlin (directed by Nicola Raab) and for "Osud" at the Janáček Brno Festival (directed by Robert Carsen). At Zurich Opera House she designed the costumes for Adele Thomas’s production of "Il trovatore", Ted Huffman’s productions of "Madama Butterfly", "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "Roméo et Juliette", as well as for Evgeny Titov’s production of "L’Orfeo".

Franck Evin, born in Nantes, moved to Paris at the age of 19 to study piano. At night he accompanied singers at the café théâtre Le Connétable and also began to take an interest in lighting. He eventually decided on a combination of music and technology. Thanks to a scholarship from the French Ministry of Culture, he became assistant to the head of lighting at the Opéra de Lyon in 1983. There he worked, among others, with Ken Russell and Robert Wilson. In 1986 he began working as a freelance lighting designer at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and passed the master lighting designer examination in 1993. Particularly close during this period was his collaboration with Werner Schröter and with the conductor Eberhard Kloke. This was followed by productions in, among other places, Nantes, Strasbourg, Paris, Lyon, Vienna, Bonn, Brussels and Los Angeles. From 1995 to 2012 he was artistic director of the lighting department at the Komische Oper Berlin and was responsible there for all new productions. During this time, Andreas Homoki, Barrie Kosky, Calixto Bieito and Hans Neuenfels became especially important collaborators for him. In 2006 Franck Evin was awarded the "OPUS" in the category of lighting design. From the 2012/13 season to 2024/25 he worked as artistic director of the lighting department at Zurich Opera House. In addition to his work in Zurich, he continued to be involved as a guest in international productions, for example at the opera houses in Oslo, Stockholm, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Munich and Graz, as well as at the Opéra Bastille, La Scala in Milan, Teatro La Fenice, Vlaamse Opera and the Bayreuth Festival.

Alice Lapasin Zorzit completed her piano studies at the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Boccherini in Lucca and continued her training at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, where she graduated with distinction in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in choral conducting. During this time, she gained her first experience in the opera world as a répétiteur at the Landestheater Linz. In 2017 she took part in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, and in the 2018/19 season she served as a répétiteur with the Orchestra Academy of the Zurich Opera House. The 2019/20 season brought an engagement as deputy children’s choir director and guest pianist at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. She subsequently moved to the Staatstheater Darmstadt, where she worked from 2020 to 2022 as deputy chorus director and children’s choir director. Alongside her professional development, she continued her academic studies: in 2021 she completed her Master’s degree in conducting and opera coaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, followed in 2022 by a part-time Master’s degree in cultural management (EMAA) at the University of Zurich. As a cultural manager, she was a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Bank Foundation (AMH) and founded the artist agency ArteMIS in 2024. From 2023 to 2025, Alice Lapasin Zorzit was chorus director with conducting duties at the Landestheater Coburg, and in the summer of 2025 she worked as chorus assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. Since January 2026 she has been deputy chorus director at Zurich Opera House.

Pim Veulings studierte Tanz an der Universität der Künste in Amsterdam. Er tanzte an den Landestheatern in Linz und Niederbayern, dem Theaterhaus in Stuttgart, dem Wielki Theater in Warschau, der Welsh National Opera und dem Vlaamse Opera en Ballet in Antwerpen. Seit 2015 choreografiert er für Oper, Film, Musical und für zeitgenössische Tanzkompanien. Er arbeitete mit dem Scapino Ballet Rotterdam für La traviata und zusammen mit Floris Visser und der Dutch Touring Opera für Orphée et Eurydice, gefolgt von Manon am Opernhaus Zürich, Madama Butterfly an der Oper Graz, Hercules am Badischen Staatstheater in Karlsruhe und La bohème in Glyndebourne. Mit Ted Huffman arbeitete er für Braunfels' Die Vögel an der Opéra National du Rhin, für L'incoronazione di Poppea in Aix-en-Provence und für Die Zauberflöte an der Oper Frankfurt zusammen. Zu Pim Veulings künftigen Projekten gehört eine neue Choreografie für Orphée et Eurydice an der Nederlandse Reisopera.

Fabio Dietsche studied dramaturgy at the Zurich University of the Arts as well as cross flute with Maria Goldschmidt in Zurich and with Karl-Heinz Schütz in Vienna. He gained his first experience as a dramaturge in 2012/13 with Xavier Zuber at Konzert Theater Bern, where he accompanied, among others, Matthias Rebstock’s production of "neither" (Beckett/Feldman) at the Berner Reithalle. Since 2013, he has been a dramaturge at the Zurich Opera House, where he completed his studies with the production dramaturgy of Puccini’s "La bohème." There, he has been involved, among others, in the world premieres of Stefan Wirth’s "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and Leonard Evers’ "Odyssee," the chamber opera "Jakob Lenz" by Wolfgang Rihm, and the Swiss premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s "Orest." He has worked with, among others, Robert Carsen, Tatjana Gürbaca, Rainer Holzapfel, Andreas Homoki, Ted Huffman, Mélanie Huber, Barrie Kosky, Hans Neuenfels, and Kai Anne Schuhmacher. He is currently studying cultural management on a part-time basis at the University of Zurich.