Robert Carsen (Stage Director)
Born in Toronto, Canada, Robert Carsen trained as an actor first
at the York University, Toronto, then in Britain at the Bristol
Old Vic Theatre School before turning to directing. His successful career
has brought him to the most prestigious international stages.
His
first major success was Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
at Aix-en-Provence in 1991, later brought to other theatres. One
of those was Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, which had the production
released on DVD. The director returned to Aix-en-Provence again with
Die Zauberflцte, Handel’s Orlando and Semele.
He worked for Opйra de Lyon (Salome), Opйra de Bordeaux
(Le Nozze di Figaro, which had been later transferred
to the Thйвtre des Champs Elysйes, Paris, Tel-Aviv, Barcelona and
Genoa), Paris Opera where he had staged 10 productions: Manon
Lescaut, Nabucco, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Lohengrin, Les
Contes d’Hoffmann, Alcina, Dvoшбk’s Rusalka, Rameau’s Les
Borйades, Capriccio, Tannhдuser.
Robert Carsen was a frequent
guest at the Flemish Opera, Belgium, where he had staged seven
Puccini’s operas, Janбиek’s Jenщfa, Katya Kabanova and The
Cunning Little Vixen; he also directed the world premiere
of Giorgio Battistelli’s Richard III. Among other opera houses
he worked at are Opйra national du Rhin, Strasbourg (Janбиek’s
The Makropoulos Affair), De Nederlandse Opera (Poulenc’s
Dialogues des carmйlites, Fidelio, Carmen), Oper Kцln (Der Ring
des Nibelungen, Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff), Vienna State Opera (Verdi’s
Jйrusalem, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Manon Lescaut), Metropolitan Opera
(Boito’s Mefistofele, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin), Lyric Opera
of Chicago (Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Iphigйnie
en Tauride), Teatro alla Scala (Dialogues des carmйlites, Katya
Kabanova, Bernstein’s Candide, Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Alcina), Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia
di Lammermoor), etc. He also worked at the numerous opera
festivals, including Salzburg Festival (Der Rosenkavalier), Bregenz
Festival (Il Trovatore), Glyndebourne Festival (L’incoronazione
di Poppea, Rinaldo), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Fidelio).
He has directed the productions of R. Strauss’ Elektra
in Tokyo, musical director Seiji Ozawa (the production was revived
at Florence in 2008 and in Paris in 2013), and
La Traviata at the re-opening of Teatro La Fenice,
Venice, in 2004.
His works for drama theatre include Brecht’s
Mother Courage and Her Children for Piccolo Teatro di Milano,
Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan for Bristol Old Vic Theatre and Stoppard’s
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in New York. For Thйвtre
du Chвtelet, Paris, Carsen has directed Ute Lemper’s show Nomade,
Bernstein’s Candide and F. Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady.
For Andrew Lloyd Webber, the director has staged Beautiful Game
(Cambridge Theatre, London) and Sunset Boulevard (tour around Great
Britain).
Robert Carsen has also showed interest in designing art
exhibitions, among them Marie-Antoinette at the Grand Palais and
Charles Garnier at L’Йcole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. At the
Theater an der Wien, Vienna, he has produced Britten’s The Turn
of the Screw, where for the first time he was also the set and
costume designer.
Robert Carsen is the Knight of the French
Order of Arts and Letters, as well as of the Order
of Canada, and the winner of numerous theatre awards.
|