Barrie Kosky

When a precious hoard of gold is stolen from the river Rhine, it unleashes a chain of destructive events, pitting gods and mortals against one another for generations. Wagner’s Ring cycle boasts some of the greatest music ever written for the opera stage. Join us as we embark on a spectacular journey into the world of myth, dream and memory, with the figure of Erda – Mother Earth herself – at its centre.

Tosca is a melodrama of love, betrayal and death set in the revolutionary unrest of 1800. The story concerns the opera singer Floria Tosca who tries to save her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, from the brutal chief of police, Scarpia. Through-composed and expertly orchestrated it contains some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias and remains one of his most performed operas. In this 2022 production, an eminent cast is directed by the acclaimed Australian director Barrie Kosky

Lying in bed, Tsar Dodon dreams of retirement. The problem is, people keep invading his country. His astrologer offers him a golden cockerel with magical powers, a weather vane which indicates from which direction danger will come. In his case, it will be from the East in the shape of a charming oriental princess determined to conquer his kingdom.

Pushkin folk tale as comedic opera whose sultry elements expand an Oriental influence. Korsakov portrays the story of Tsar Nicholas II, punished for his cowardice and despotism, using satire to condemn Russia's autocratic ruler.

그리스 신화에 등장하는 ‘오르페우스와 에우리디케’ 이야기를 풍자와 익살을 담아 재해석한 패러디이다. 유명 음악가 오르페우스와 아름다운 에우리디케는 오랜 결혼 생활 끝에 심한 권태를 느낀다. 서로 다른 사람과 바람을 피던 것이 발각되고 부부 싸움 끝에 남편이 풀어놓은 독사에 물려 에우리디케는 죽음을 맞는다. 서로에게서 작별을 하게 되어 기뻐하지만, 여론이 등장하여 오르페우스에게 죽은 아내를 저승에서 데려오는 것이 바람직하다고 충고하고, 그는 아내를 돌려받기 위해 여정을 떠난다.

Barrie Kosky peers into the abyss of the human soul and tackles one of the most important Symbolist masterpieces in the operatic repertoire.

Bizet's greatest opera tells the story of the enigmatic and seductive Carmen and the dangerous passions of Don José. Live stream performance from The Royal Opera House in July 2019.

The high-point of the 2017 Bayreuth Festival, Barrie Kosky’s astonishingly entertaining and convincing new Meistersinger is a triumph: a production of enormous insight and great quality... that plumbs the depths of both the opera and its composer.

Semele was written in 1743, by an already mature Handel, after his opera serias were becoming less well received than they had once been. The big novelty of the time was that Semele was composed entirely in English and is surely the closest that any of his oratorios get towards opera (though today many of them are staged as such). Stage director Barrie Kosky definitely places it in the operatic genre. He creates a very worldly universe in which gods and mortals are prone to the same emotions.

담배공장에서 담뱃잎을 말아 생활하던 가난한 하층민 집시 여성 카르멘은 싸움에 말려 감옥에 갈 위기에 처하지만 군인 호세를 유혹하여 풀려난다. 다시 만난 호세와 카르멘은 사랑에 빠지게 되지만 몇 달 후 호세는 자신에게 싫증이 난 그녀의 마음이 투우사 에스카미요에게 있다는 것을 알게 되고 극단의 선택을 하기에 이른다.

A devil is at work in the Ukrainian village of Sorochintsy, terrifying residents and travellers alike. Among them a farmer whose daughter is not allowed to marry her lover because her quarrelsome stepmother is against it.

In a poet's feverish imagination, the staging of Don Giovanni sets him off on a frenzied journey into nightmarish worlds. Can Mozart himself offer him salvation as he loses himself in his fearful dreams? Barrie Kosky tells Offenbach's fantastic story as a disturbing nightmare of an artist who increasingly loses his sense of identity. As we dive into the obsessions of a deranged mind, the title role itself is shared by three performers - including an actor - while a single soprano embodies all four female lead roles.

Glyndebourne's Saul stole the summer and had critics raving. The Guardian (****) applauded virtuoso stagecraft from director Barrie Kosky in his debut production there, calling the show a theatrical and musical feast of energetic choruses, surreal choreography and gorgeous singing. For The Independent, which ranked it amongst five top classical and opera performances of 2015, there was no praise too high for the cast. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ivor Bolton sparkles from the pit with period panache, and designer Katrin Lea Tag's exuberant costumes (The Times ****) set the Old Testament story in Handel's time, with a witty twinge of the contemporary.

Live performance from the Komische Oper Berlin, February 15 2016.

A couple and their hallucinatory journey to the dark side of passion. Renata is driven by a longing for the consummate sexual encounter. Since her youth she has had a vision of an ecstatic conjugation with a shining angel. Ruprecht falls for Renata and follows her unreservedly on her obsessive quest to fulfil this fantasy. The couple cross the boundaries of perception, leaving behind all traces of morality or reason, until their willingness to devote body and soul completely to one another threatens to pull their previous existence apart.

Moses relies on his eloquent brother’s help to translate the abstract idea of God into understandable images. But don't his persuasive words mar the pure idea that Moses finds so impossible to put into words? In Schönberg's unfinished opus magnum, Barrie Kosky recounts the Israelites' exodus - with almost 200 performers on stage - as a parable of humanity's never-ending search for answers. The Russian star conductor Vladimir Jurowski returns to his former workplace, the Komische Oper Berlin, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. Television broadcast of the 2008 Komische Oper production.