Calixto Bieito

The Spanish director Calixto Bieito is internationally recognized for his innovative takes on the operatic canon. His theatre directions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Salzburg and Hamlet in Edinburgh, his Don Giovanni in Hanover and Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Berlin’s Komische Oper established Bieito’s fame as one of Europe’s foremost directors rapidly. He has directed many works of the operatic repertoire, from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. He also directed Prokofiev’s War and Peace at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Tristan und Isolde at the Wiener Staatsoper, Flammen by Erich Schulhoff at Prague’s Staatsoper and Eliogabalo at Opernhaus Zürich. Bieito also worked as an artistic director of different institutions and organisations. For ten years, he directed the Teatre Romea in Barcelona and organised the Festival Internacional de las Artes de Castilla y León in Salamanca. He also created the Barcelona Internacional Teatre, a forum for projects of artists and theatres. Since 2017, Bieito has been directing Bilbao’s Teatro Arriaga artistically. For Dutch National Opera, Bieito directed Rudi Stephan’s Die ersten Menschen in 2021. 

Calixto Bieito will return in January 2025 for a revival of Die ersten Menschen (22 Jan - 2 Feb 2025).