Director and Stage Designer
Kirill Serebrennikov
In the 24/25 season, Kirill Serebrennikov directs Don Carlo at the Vienna State Opera, Leben mit einem Idioten by Alfred Schnittke at the Zurich Opera, Don Giovanni/Requiem at the Komische Oper Berlin and returns to the De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam with Boris Godunov. Kirill Serebrennikov was born in Rostov-on-Don and graduated in physics in 1992. During his studies, he began his self-taught work as a theatre, opera, film and television director as well as costume designer. Salome at the Stuttgart Opera and Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Komische Oper Berlin were the first highly acclaimed works that Kirill Serebrennikov was able to present to an audience outside Russia.
Together with Teodor Currentzis, Kirill Serebrennikov worked on Mysterion (based on Carl Orff's De temporum fine comedia) and the benefit project Requiem (by Alexei Sioumak), for which he was also responsible as author. Other opera productions include Falstaff at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Le coq d'or at the Bolshoi Moscow and American Lulu at the Vienna Festival.
His interpretation of Cosi fan tutte at the Zurich Opera in autumn 2018 was celebrated as a sensational success, as was his Nabucco production at the Hamburg State Opera in spring 2019 and his production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Theater Basel in autumn 2019. In March 2020, Kirill Serebrennikov made his debut with his first play in Germany with a production of the adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. His interpretation of Parsifal in a new production at the Vienna State Opera in April 2021 was also celebrated by audiences and the media. Other successes included Die Nase at the Bayerische Staatsoper in autumn 2021 and Der Freischütz at De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam in June 2022.
At the Komische Oper Berlin, he is staging Mozart's Da Ponte cycle, starting with Così fan tutte (2023), followed by Le nozze di Figaro (2024). In the following season, he directed Lohengrin at the Opéra de Paris. Kirill Serebrennikov was awarded at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for his filmmaking such as The Student. Other films such as The Swallow, Mysteries of the Storm, Playing the Victim, The Diary of a Murderer were screened at the film festivals in Rome, Locarno and Venice and were nominated for the Golden Lion and the Grand Prix of Kinotavr in Sochi.
Kirill Serebrennikov not only staged numerous classics of Russian literature, but also works by Shakespeare and Brecht to the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. His production of Plasticine by Vasily Sigarev was recorded by arte and invited to numerous European theatre festivals. In 2011, Serebrennikov founded an experimental workshop project »Platform« in Moscow. As artistic director of Studio Seven, a collective of young artists, he has staged productions such as: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Carroll's The Hunt for the Snitch. Studio Seven became part of the Gogol Center, whose artistic director was Kirill Serebrennikov from 2012 to 2021. The Gogol Center in Moscow is a cross-genre theatre laboratory and a solitaire in the Russian cultural landscape. Here he staged Dead Souls by Gogol, a musical adaptation by Duncan Sheik, based on Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, and Machine Müller, based on Heiner Müller's Hamletmaschine in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.
Kirill Serebrennikov was awarded the Golden Mask in April 2019 for his production of the ballet Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theatre and for the production of Pushkin's Little Tragedies at the Gogol Center.
Together with Teodor Currentzis, Kirill Serebrennikov worked on Mysterion (based on Carl Orff's De temporum fine comedia) and the benefit project Requiem (by Alexei Sioumak), for which he was also responsible as author. Other opera productions include Falstaff at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Le coq d'or at the Bolshoi Moscow and American Lulu at the Vienna Festival.
His interpretation of Cosi fan tutte at the Zurich Opera in autumn 2018 was celebrated as a sensational success, as was his Nabucco production at the Hamburg State Opera in spring 2019 and his production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Theater Basel in autumn 2019. In March 2020, Kirill Serebrennikov made his debut with his first play in Germany with a production of the adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. His interpretation of Parsifal in a new production at the Vienna State Opera in April 2021 was also celebrated by audiences and the media. Other successes included Die Nase at the Bayerische Staatsoper in autumn 2021 and Der Freischütz at De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam in June 2022.
At the Komische Oper Berlin, he is staging Mozart's Da Ponte cycle, starting with Così fan tutte (2023), followed by Le nozze di Figaro (2024). In the following season, he directed Lohengrin at the Opéra de Paris. Kirill Serebrennikov was awarded at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for his filmmaking such as The Student. Other films such as The Swallow, Mysteries of the Storm, Playing the Victim, The Diary of a Murderer were screened at the film festivals in Rome, Locarno and Venice and were nominated for the Golden Lion and the Grand Prix of Kinotavr in Sochi.
Kirill Serebrennikov not only staged numerous classics of Russian literature, but also works by Shakespeare and Brecht to the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. His production of Plasticine by Vasily Sigarev was recorded by arte and invited to numerous European theatre festivals. In 2011, Serebrennikov founded an experimental workshop project »Platform« in Moscow. As artistic director of Studio Seven, a collective of young artists, he has staged productions such as: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Carroll's The Hunt for the Snitch. Studio Seven became part of the Gogol Center, whose artistic director was Kirill Serebrennikov from 2012 to 2021. The Gogol Center in Moscow is a cross-genre theatre laboratory and a solitaire in the Russian cultural landscape. Here he staged Dead Souls by Gogol, a musical adaptation by Duncan Sheik, based on Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, and Machine Müller, based on Heiner Müller's Hamletmaschine in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.
Kirill Serebrennikov was awarded the Golden Mask in April 2019 for his production of the ballet Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theatre and for the production of Pushkin's Little Tragedies at the Gogol Center.