Macbeth

Francesco Lanzillotta gilt als einer der renommiertesten italienischen Dirigenten seiner Generation. 2010 wurde er zum Ersten Gastdirigenten am Opernhaus von Varna in Bulgarien berufen und leitet seit 2014/15 als Chefdirigent die Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma. Mit Rigoletto eröffnete er 2015 das Macerata Opera Festival und 2017 wurde er dessen Musikalischer Leiter. Im Sommer 2018 leitet er dort L’elisir d’amore. Künftige Engagements bringen Francesco Lanzillotta zudem für Don Checco zurück an das Teatro San Carlo in Neapel, für Macbeth erstmals ans Opernhaus Zürich und für Don Giovanni ans New National Theatre Tokyo. Debüts der jüngeren Vergangenheit umfassen L’italiana in Algeri an der Ungarischen Staatsoper in Budapest, Lucia di Lammermoor an der Opéra de Toulon, Nabucco an der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Rigoletto an der Semperoper Dresden sowie Konzerte mit dem Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Engagements führten Francesco Lanzillotta an die Opéra National de Montpellier, an die Opéra National de Wallonie in Nancy, an das Aalto-Theater Essen, das Teatro La Fenice in Venedig und zum Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Er arbeitete ausserdem an wichtigen italienischen Opernhäusern und leitete namhafte Orchester, darunter das Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Orchestra Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo, Orchestra Verdi di Milano, Orchestra del Teatro Verdi, Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in Suwon (Korea) und das Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. In seiner Heimatstadt Rom studierte Francesco Lanzillotta Dirigieren und Komposition am Konservatorium Santa Cecilia. Ausserdem studierte er Klavier und nahm bei Meisterkursen für Dirigieren in New York und Madrid teil.

Barrie Kosky was Artistic Director and Chief Stage Director of the Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2022. He directs at major opera houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Vienna State Opera, as well as at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals, the Glyndebourne Festival, and at theatres including the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Schauspiel Frankfurt. In 1996, he was Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival, and from 2001 to 2005, he served as Co-Director of the Schauspielhaus Wien. His award-winning production of "The Magic Flute" (together with 1927) at the Komische Oper Berlin has since been seen in over 45 cities worldwide. For "From the House of the Dead" at the Hanover State Opera, he received the theatre prize "Der Faust" in 2009, and for "Castor et Pollux" at the English National Opera, he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 2011. His Bayreuth production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" was named "Performance of the Year" in the 2017 Opernwelt critics’ poll. Under his leadership, the Komische Oper Berlin was named "Opera House of the Year" for the 2012/13 season, followed in 2015 by the International Opera Award in the category "Ensemble of the Year." Barrie Kosky has been named "Director of the Year" several times, including in 2014 at the International Opera Awards, in 2016 in the Opernwelt critics’ poll, and in 2020 by the magazine Die deutsche Bühne. In 2022, he received the Order of Merit of Berlin and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2024. At the Zurich Opera House, Barrie Kosky has staged "La fanciulla del West," "Macbeth," "Eugen Onegin," "Die Gezeichneten," "Boris Godunov," and "Manon Lescaut."

Klaus Grünberg, a native of Hamburg, studied stage design under Erich Wonder in Vienna and has since worked as a freelance stage and lighting designer at theatres and opera houses across Europe, as well as in Kuwait and Buenos Aires. For many years, he has collaborated with composer and director Heiner Goebbels, as well as with Tatjana Gürbaca and Barrie Kosky. His recent works include "The Magic Flute," "Macbeth," "Werther," "Lucia di Lammermoor," and "The Merry Widow" at the Zurich Opera House; "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" and the Berlin-themed evening "…und morgen könnt ihr mich!" at the Komische Oper Berlin; "Ulisse" and "La Juive" at the Frankfurt Opera; "Simon Boccanegra" at the Aalto Music Theatre Essen; "Rusalka" at the Hanover State Opera; "L’incoronazione di Poppea" at the Theater Bremen; and Gogol’s "The Government Inspector" at the Burgtheater Vienna. In 1999, Klaus Grünberg opened MOMOLMA (Museum of More or Less Modern Art) in Hamburg.

Anne Kuhn, born in Chemnitz, studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. After numerous stage and set design assistantships, including with Beatrice Schultz, Klaus Grünberg, and Wolfgang Gussmann, she has been collaborating regularly with stage and lighting designer Klaus Grünberg since 2008. In addition, she realizes her own independent projects. Anne Kuhn lives and works as a stage designer and illustrator in Berlin and Hamburg. She has worked on productions such as "The Nose" (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), "Don Giovanni" and "Simplicius Simplicissimus" (Theater Bremen), "Rusalka" (Hanover State Opera), "Der Freischütz" (Aalto Music Theatre Essen), as well as at the Komische Oper Berlin on "Frühlingsstürme," "Pelléas et Mélisande," and "Akhnaten." At the Zurich Opera House, she collaborated with Klaus Grünberg on the stage designs for "Macbeth" and "The Merry Widow" (directed by Barrie Kosky), as well as for "Aida," "The Magic Flute," "Werther," and "Lucia di Lammermoor" (directed by Tatjana Gürbaca).

Klaus Bruns studied stage and costume design at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. For almost 30 years, he has worked as a costume designer at theatres including those in Stuttgart, Graz, Frankfurt, Zurich, Cologne, and Leipzig, as well as at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Schaubühne and Deutsches Theater Berlin, and the Residenztheater and Kammerspiele in Munich. He has a long-standing collaboration with Karin Henkel. In opera, he has worked with Barrie Kosky, Michael Talke, Andreas Homoki, Olivier Tambosi, Michael Schulz, Harry Kupfer, Götz Friedrich, and Christof Loy, among others, at the three Berlin opera houses, the Nuremberg Opera, Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Leipzig Opera, Teatro Regio Turin, Theater an der Wien, the National Theatres in Mannheim and Weimar, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. His collaborations with Barrie Kosky include "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the Hanover State Opera; "Rusalka," "Moses und Aron," "Eugene Onegin," "Anatevka," and "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" at the Komische Oper Berlin; "La fanciulla del West," "Macbeth," "Die Gezeichneten," "Eugene Onegin," "Boris Godunov," and "Manon Lescaut" at the Zurich Opera House; "Prince Igor" at the Opéra Bastille in Paris; "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and "Agrippina" at the Hamburg State Opera. For the costumes in Kosky’s Bayreuth production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg," Klaus Bruns was named "Costume Designer of the Year" by Opernwelt magazine in 2018. In 2024, he received the Oper! Award for Best Costume Designer for the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s "Animal Farm" in Amsterdam.

Christian Günther stammt aus Freiburg im Breisgau und studierte zunächst Orchesterdirigieren in München. Nach Gastverträgen am Staatstheater Stuttgart, dem Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz und der Münchner Biennale war er von 2002-2007 Stellvertretender Chordirektor und ab 2004 auch 2. Kapellmeister am Theater Bremen. Seit 2007 ist er Dozent für Dirigieren an der Hochschule für Künste Bremen und leitete dort bis 2012 das Ensemble Atelier Neue Musik. Seit 2008 ist er Stellvertretender Chordirektor an der Hamburgischen Staatsoper. In der Spielzeit 2012/13 leitete er den Chor interimistisch zusammen mit dem Zürcher Chordirektor Janko Kastelic und arbeitet seit 2013 als Stellvertreter von Eberhard Friedrich, dessen Assistent er 2017 auch bei den Bayreuther Festspielen war. In Hamburg betreute er unter anderem die Premiere von Gounods Faust in der Inszenierung von Andreas Homoki und die Premiere von Fürst Igor von Borodin, einer Koproduktion mit dem Opernhaus Zürich. 2018 arbeitete Christian Günther zum ersten Mal mit dem Chor des NDR in einer Einstudierung von Mozarts Don Giovanni zusammen.

Claus Spahn was chief dramaturge at the Zurich Opera House during Andreas Homoki’s tenure as artistic director. There, he supervised music theater projects by Wolfgang Rihm, Helmut Lachenmann, George Benjamin, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and world premieres by Heinz Holliger, Christian Jost, and Stefan Wirth. As a production dramaturge, he worked with directors such as Sebastian Baumgarten, Herbert Fritsch, Jan Philipp Gloger, Tatjana Gürbaca, Andreas Homoki, Barrie Kosky, Nadja Loschky, David Marton, and Evgeni Titov. He also shares a close artistic partnership with the choreographer and former director of Zurich Ballet, Christian Spuck. For him, Spahn was involved in the development of the productions “Anna Karenina,” “Nussknacker und Mausekönig,” and “Monteverdi” in Zurich, he also wrote libretti for the ballets “Orlando” based on Virginia Woolf (world premiere in 2021 at the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet) and “Bovary” based on Gustave Flaubert (world premiere in 2023 at the Berlin State Ballet). Additionally, he is the librettist of the chamber opera “The Dream of You” by Swiss composer Xavier Dayer, which premiered in 2017 at the Zurich Opera House. Before joining the Zurich Opera House, Claus Spahn was the arts editor for 14 years at the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, where he was responsible for the music section. From 1990 to 1997, he worked as a freelance music journalist mainly for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bavarian Broadcasting. Claus Spahn was born in Germany, studied classical guitar in Freiburg im Breisgau, and completed training at the German School of Journalism in Munich.