Sophie Jira

Sophie Jira, born in Vienna, has had a passion for opera ever since she was young. She studied musicology at the University of Vienna and since then has devoted herself mainly to operetta, Viennese music and music of the Strauss family. For the Johann Strauss Year 2025, she is the dramaturg of A Night in Venice (directed by Nina Spijkers) at the Vienna Volksoper. She gained her first professional experience in the press office of the Vienna State Opera, the organization of the Vienna Opera Ball, in the Vienna Narrenturm and in the program design at the cultural radio station Ö1. From 2020 to 2024, Sophie Jira was engaged as a music theatre dramaturg at the Theater Altenburg Gera, where she worked with directors such as Achim Freyer, Bernd Mottl, Kay Kuntze and Laurence Dale. She has written several commissioned works and stage programs for Gera, such as Revuen (Vienna at Night 2024). Her first full-length operetta Redoute in Reuß (music: Olav Kröger), located in the dwarf principality of Reuss-Greiz-Schleiz, premiered at the Gera Theatre in 2024. Sophie Jira is a scholarship holder of the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Foundation in the libretto/text section. Since the 2024/25 season, she has been a dramaturg at the Komische Oper Berlin.