Artistic director
Barrie Kosky
Barrie Kosky is one of the most internationally renowned theatre and opera directors of our time. From 2012–2022 he was celebrated artistic director and chief director of the Komische Oper Berlin, whose eclectic and radical programming of opera, operetta and musical earned the house numerous international awards and public recognition. His production of Die Zauberflöte has already been seen by almost a million people worldwide in over 45 international cities.
Other major productions at the Komische Oper Berlin include the Monteverdi Trilogy, in which Monteverdi's three great operas were performed in twelve hours in one day, Yevgeny Onegin, Moses and Aron, Rusalka, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Le Grand Macabre, The Bassarids, West Side Story, Semele, Anatevka, La Cage Aux Folles, Castor et Pollux, Pelléas et Mélisande, Chicago, Candide and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. His productions of jazz operettas from the Weimar Republic gained international recognition and can still be seen in the repertoire of the Komische Oper Berlin.
Other major productions at the Komische Oper Berlin include the Monteverdi Trilogy, in which Monteverdi's three great operas were performed in twelve hours in one day, Yevgeny Onegin, Moses and Aron, Rusalka, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Le Grand Macabre, The Bassarids, West Side Story, Semele, Anatevka, La Cage Aux Folles, Castor et Pollux, Pelléas et Mélisande, Chicago, Candide and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. His productions of jazz operettas from the Weimar Republic gained international recognition and can still be seen in the repertoire of the Komische Oper Berlin.
Barrie Kosky's best-known opera productions include those for the Bavarian State Opera (Die Schweigsame Frau, Agrippina, Der feurige Engel, Der Rosenkavalier, Das schlaue Füchslein and Die Fledermaus), the Salzburg Festival (Orphée aux Enfers, Kát'a Kabanová), the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Saul, Les Dialogues des Carmélites), the Bayreuth Festival (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Festival d'Aix en Provence (Falstaff, Coq d'Or, Songs and Fragments), Vienna State Opera (The Complete Da Ponte Cycle), Zurich Opera (La Fancuilla del West, The Marked Ones, Macbeth, Boris Gudonov and The Merry Widow), Opéra National de Paris (Prince Igor and Les Brigands), the Dutch National Opera (Armide, Tosca, Turandot and Il Trittico) and Royal Opera House Covent Garden (The Nose, Agrippina, Das Rheingold).
In addition, he has performed his productions in other international opera houses, including the Frankfurt Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Gran Liceu Barcelona, the Norwegian Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Houston Grand Opera, the Frankfurt Opera and the Opéra National du Rhin.
His new production of Die Dreigroschenoper for the Berliner Ensemble has already been seen in Rome, Adelaide, Amsterdam and at the Edinburgh International Festival. The production will be shown in New York and Shanghai in the future.
Kosky's awards include the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production for Castor and Pollux (2011), the International Opera Award for Director of the Year (2014 and 2023), the Opera World Awards for Director of the Year (2016) and for Performance of the Year with the production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2017), the Gold Medal of the Berlin Theaterclub 2015 and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2016 for Saul. In 2020, he received the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in recognition of his unique and formative contribution to the Australian Arts Award.
In 2022, Barrie Kosky received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin and in 2024 the Federal Cross of Merit, the highest civilian award of the Federal Republic of German for his extraordinary contribution to artistic life in Germany.
Barrie Kosky has very close artistic relationships with some of the leading opera conductors of our time, including Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jakub Hrůša, Lorenzo Viotti, Robin Ticciati and Emmanuelle Haim. Future new productions include the next installment of his complete Ring cycle, Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Manon Lescaut at the Zurich Opera, a new collaboration with Cecilia Bartoli at the Salzburg Festival and Sweeney Todd at the Komische Oper Berlin.
As of November 2025