Romeo und Julia

The internationally renowned choreographer Cathy Marston holds both British and Swiss citizenship. Since August 2023, she has been Director of the Zurich Ballet. She received her dance training in Cambridge and at the Royal Ballet School in London. Between 1994 and 1999, she danced with the Zurich Ballet, the ballet of the Lucerne Theatre and Konzert Theater Bern. From 2002 to 2006, she was an Associate Artist at the Royal Opera House London, and from 2007 to 2013, she was Director of Ballet at Konzert Theater Bern. Having worked for many years with great success as a freelance choreographer, Cathy Marston has been invited by a large number of renowned international companies and institutions. Her creations have included works for the Royal Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the English National Ballet, the Northern Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, Ballet Black, the National Ballet of Cuba, as well as Opera Australia and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In recent years, she has increasingly worked in the USA, including for the San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet and Joffrey Ballet Chicago. In her choreographic works, she brings great works of literature to life through dance; she also approaches important historical figures in unconventional and original ways. She achieved great success with her ballet adaptations "Mrs. Robinson" (after Charles Webb's novel "The Graduate"), "Snowblind" (after Edith Wharton's novel "Ethan Frome"), Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". Unusual perspectives also characterize her biographically inspired works "The Cellist", "Victoria" and "Hexenhatz". Cathy Marston has received numerous awards for her choreographic work, including a South Bank Sky Arts Award and the British National Dance Award. In 2020, the International Institute for Dance and Theatre awarded her a prize for excellence in international dance. The highlight of her first season as Director of the Zurich Ballet was the 2024 world premiere of "Atonement", based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan (a co-production with the Joffrey Ballet). In addition, Cathy Marston's works "The Cellist", "Snowblind" and "Mrs. Robinson" were performed in Zurich. Her most recent works are the Clara Schumann ballet "Clara", "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Dmitry Matvienko has been Chief Conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra since the 2024/25 season. Born in Belarus, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory and won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Nikolai Malko Competition. He is also a prizewinner of the Premio Guido Cantelli. As a guest conductor, Matvienko has conducted the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, as well as the opera orchestras in Turin, Bologna, Venice, Genoa and Florence. More recently, he has conducted "Eugene Onegin" at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, "From the House of the Dead" at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, "Betrothal in a Monastery" at the Theater an der Wien and "Aida" at the Opéra de Paris. In the 2026/27 season, he conducts, among others, "The Love for Three Oranges" at the Opéra de Lyon, "Otello" at the Opéra de Lille and "Boris Godunov" at La Monnaie. On the concert stage, he makes his debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Copenhagen Phil. He also returns to the podium of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

The internationally renowned choreographer Cathy Marston holds both British and Swiss citizenship. Since August 2023, she has been Director of the Zurich Ballet. She received her dance training in Cambridge and at the Royal Ballet School in London. Between 1994 and 1999, she danced with the Zurich Ballet, the ballet of the Lucerne Theatre and Konzert Theater Bern. From 2002 to 2006, she was an Associate Artist at the Royal Opera House London, and from 2007 to 2013, she was Director of Ballet at Konzert Theater Bern. Having worked for many years with great success as a freelance choreographer, Cathy Marston has been invited by a large number of renowned international companies and institutions. Her creations have included works for the Royal Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the English National Ballet, the Northern Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, Ballet Black, the National Ballet of Cuba, as well as Opera Australia and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In recent years, she has increasingly worked in the USA, including for the San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet and Joffrey Ballet Chicago. In her choreographic works, she brings great works of literature to life through dance; she also approaches important historical figures in unconventional and original ways. She achieved great success with her ballet adaptations "Mrs. Robinson" (after Charles Webb's novel "The Graduate"), "Snowblind" (after Edith Wharton's novel "Ethan Frome"), Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". Unusual perspectives also characterize her biographically inspired works "The Cellist", "Victoria" and "Hexenhatz". Cathy Marston has received numerous awards for her choreographic work, including a South Bank Sky Arts Award and the British National Dance Award. In 2020, the International Institute for Dance and Theatre awarded her a prize for excellence in international dance. The highlight of her first season as Director of the Zurich Ballet was the 2024 world premiere of "Atonement", based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan (a co-production with the Joffrey Ballet). In addition, Cathy Marston's works "The Cellist", "Snowblind" and "Mrs. Robinson" were performed in Zurich. Her most recent works are the Clara Schumann ballet "Clara", "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Edward Kemp, born in Oxford, has collaborated with Cathy Marston on more than twenty ballets, including seven for Bern Ballett. Recent collaborations include "Summer & Smoke" (Houston/American Ballet Theatre), "Of Mice and Men" (Joffrey), "Mrs. Robinson" (San Francisco), "The Cellist" (Royal Ballet), "The Suit" (Ballet Black), "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal), "Liaisons Dangereuses" (Royal Danish Ballet), and a screenplay for Disney+. He has written texts for composers such as Sally Beamish, Victoria Borisova Ollas, Jason Carr, Tansy Davies, Terry Davies, Péter Eötvös, Stuart MacRae, Julian Philips, and Gary Yershon. In theatre, his works include "King James Bible" (National Theatre), "The Mysteries" (Royal Shakespeare Company), as well as stage adaptations of Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita" (Chichester/Complicite/Avignon), Lessing’s "Nathan the Wise" (Chichester/Off-Broadway/Shaw Festival), and Faulkner’s "As I Lay Dying" (Baton Rouge). He also adapted works by Brecht, Goldoni, Kleist, Lorca, Prokofiev, Molière, Racine, and Sibelius for the stage and translated novels by Paul Auster, Eça de Queirós, Charles Dickens, Knut Hamsun, Ted Hughes, Salman Rushdie, and W. G. Sebald. He has written dramas and comedies for BBC Radio and directed plays and musicals in the United Kingdom and the United States, from authors such as Gertrude Stein and William Shakespeare to Alan Bennett and Stephen Sondheim. From 2008 to 2021 he was Director and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Today he is Chief Executive of the Royal Literary Fund, the oldest literary charity in the United Kingdom.

David Fleischer is from Australia. As a stage and costume designer, he has collaborated with renowned theatre, dance, ballet, and opera ensembles. He studied at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts in Australia. In 2012/13, he was the resident designer for the Sydney Theatre Company. For Rafaela Bonachela and the Sydney Dance Company, he created numerous productions, including "Impermanence," which was presented on international tours. He collaborated with Cathy Marston and the Queensland Ballet on "My Brilliant Career." In theatre, David Fleischer has designed over fifty plays and musicals, including the musical "Fangirls" in London’s West End and Suzie Miller’s hit play "RGB: Of Many One" for the Sydney Theatre Company. He has a close collaboration with director Kip Williams, working together on productions such as "The Harp in the South," "Love and Information," "Chimerica," "Playing Beatie Bow," "The Golden Age," "Children of the Sun," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." Recently, they worked together on the new opera "Gilgamesh," a co-production of Sydney Chamber Opera and Opera Australia, as well as "The Rape of Lucretia." David Fleischer has received numerous awards, including two Australian Production Design Guild Awards and the Berlin Music Opera Award.

Martin Gebhardt was lighting designer and Head of Lighting for John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet. From 2002 onward he collaborated with Heinz Spoerli and the Ballett Zürich. Ballet productions of both companies took him to renowned theatres across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. At Zurich Opera House he created the lighting design for productions by Jürgen Flimm, David Alden, Jan Philipp Gloger, Grischa Asagaroff, Matthias Hartmann, David Pountney, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, and Achim Freyer. At the Salzburg Festival he designed the lighting for "La bohème" and for a new version of Spoerli’s "Der Tod und das Mädchen". Since the 2012/13 season Martin Gebhardt has been Head of Lighting at Zurich Opera House. He maintains a close collaboration with choreographer Christian Spuck (including "Winterreise", "Nussknacker und Mausekönig", "Messa da Requiem", "Anna Karenina", "Woyzeck", "Der Sandmann", "Leonce und Lena", "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern"). He has also worked as lighting designer for choreographers Edward Clug (including "Strings", "Le Sacre du printemps" and "Faust" in Zurich), Alexei Ratmansky, Wayne McGregor, Marco Goecke, and Douglas Lee. He collaborated with Christoph Marthaler and Anna Viebrock on Handel’s "Sale" and Rossini’s "Il viaggio a Reims" in Zurich as well as on "Lulu" at the Hamburg State Opera, and with Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito at the Grand Théâtre de Genève for "Les Huguenots". In 2023 he designed the lighting for Spuck’s ballet "Bovary" at the Staatsballett Berlin and in 2024 for Rossini’s "Tancredi" at the Bregenz Festival. He was also the lighting designer for Cathy Marston’s "Atonement" at Zurich Opera House.

Edward Kemp, born in Oxford, has collaborated with Cathy Marston on more than twenty ballets, including seven for Bern Ballett. Recent collaborations include "Summer & Smoke" (Houston/American Ballet Theatre), "Of Mice and Men" (Joffrey), "Mrs. Robinson" (San Francisco), "The Cellist" (Royal Ballet), "The Suit" (Ballet Black), "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal), "Liaisons Dangereuses" (Royal Danish Ballet), and a screenplay for Disney+. He has written texts for composers such as Sally Beamish, Victoria Borisova Ollas, Jason Carr, Tansy Davies, Terry Davies, Péter Eötvös, Stuart MacRae, Julian Philips, and Gary Yershon. In theatre, his works include "King James Bible" (National Theatre), "The Mysteries" (Royal Shakespeare Company), as well as stage adaptations of Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita" (Chichester/Complicite/Avignon), Lessing’s "Nathan the Wise" (Chichester/Off-Broadway/Shaw Festival), and Faulkner’s "As I Lay Dying" (Baton Rouge). He also adapted works by Brecht, Goldoni, Kleist, Lorca, Prokofiev, Molière, Racine, and Sibelius for the stage and translated novels by Paul Auster, Eça de Queirós, Charles Dickens, Knut Hamsun, Ted Hughes, Salman Rushdie, and W. G. Sebald. He has written dramas and comedies for BBC Radio and directed plays and musicals in the United Kingdom and the United States, from authors such as Gertrude Stein and William Shakespeare to Alan Bennett and Stephen Sondheim. From 2008 to 2021 he was Director and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Today he is Chief Executive of the Royal Literary Fund, the oldest literary charity in the United Kingdom.

Michael Küster is German. After studying German language and literature, art and speech science at the University of Halle, he worked as a presenter, author and announcer for various broadcasting organizations in Germany. There, he presented a wide range of classical music programmes and live broadcasts of major concert events, including from the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Semperoper Dresden and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. To this day, he remains associated with the radio programme SWR Kultur. Since 2002, he has been a dramaturg at the Zurich Opera House, working with directors including Matthias Hartmann, David Alden, Robert Carsen, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, David Pountney, Johannes Schaaf and Graham Vick. As a dramaturg for the Zurich Ballet, Michael Küster has worked with Cathy Marston, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau, Kim Brandstrup, Edward Clug, Alexei Ratmansky, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek and Hans van Manen, among others, since 2012. With Christian Spuck, he created, among other works, "Winterreise" ("Prix Benois de la Danse"), "Romeo and Juliet", "Messa da Requiem" and "The Sleeping Beauty". At La Scala in Milan, Michael Küster was dramaturg for Matthias Hartmann's opera productions of "Der Freischütz", "Idomeneo" and "Pique Dame".