Luc Joosten
Photo: Jan Willem Kaldenbach

Luc Joosten

Head of dramaturgy

He has been working in the opera world since 1993 as a freelance production dramaturge for the Flemish Opera (Antwerp/Ghent), De Munt (Brussels), KlangBogen / Theater an der Wien and Neue Oper Wien. His work as a dramaturge has also taken him to Dutch National Opera and the opera houses of Essen, Leipzig, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Hamburg and ENO London. Besides working with Guy Joosten for many years, he has also collaborated with directors like Peter Konwitschny, Michael Thalheimer, Tatjana Gürbaca, Luk Perceval, David Hermann, David Bösch, Jan Fabre, Daniel Kramer, Mariame Clement and Kornel Mundruczo, Andriy Zholdak, and theatre collective FC BERGMAN. From 2010 to 2018, Joosten held the post of Head of Dramaturgy at Opera Vlaanderen. After which he became the Head of Dramaturgy at Dutch National Opera. Joosten is also a guest lecturer at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he gives classes in the dramaturgy of music theatre.

Luc Joosten was a lecturer in Poetics at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and a lecturer in Dramaturgy at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He has taught Philosophy of Art, Cultural Trends, and Music and Literature at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. At the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, he taught dramaturgy and theatre history (in the theatre design department). He was a guest professor of Dramaturgy in Music Theatre at the International Opera Academy (Operastudio Vlaanderen) and at the famous Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Luc Joosten regularly publishes works on opera and culture, and gives lectures on opera in both a broad and a professional context. Several of the productions for which he was production dramaturge have received awards, including La Juive (Director: Peter Konwitschny), which received the German theatre award Faust 2016, and Infinite Now (Chaya Czernowin; directed by: Luk Perceval), which was voted Creation of the Year 2017 by Opernwelt. The creation Les Bienveillantes (Hèctor Parra / Händl Klaus / Calixto Bieito) was nominated for the Fedora-Generali Prize 2018.