Calixto Bieito (1963) is one of Spain’s most famous contemporary directors and gained his reputation through his radical interpretations of classical operas. He studied Spanish literature and art history at the University of Barcelona and direction at the ‘Institut del Teatre’ (also in Barcelona), trained as an actor in Tarragona and followed masterclasses with Jerzy Grotowski, Ingmar Bergman, Peter Brook and Giorgio Strehler. 

His international breakthrough came with striking productions of works including Tomás Bretóns zarzuela La verbena de la paloma, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Calderón de la Barca’s La vida es sueño at the Edinburgh International Festival. 

From 1999 to 2011 Bieito was the artistic director of the Teatre Romea in Barcelona, where he led international tours of works including Macbeth (Salzburg, Munich), Die Dreigroschenoper (Paris, Ruhr triennial) and Peer Gynt (Bergen International Festival). between 2010 and 2012 he was a guest director at the International Arts Festival of Castilla y León.

In 1999 Calixto Bieito made his debut as an opera director. Productions of works including Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Mozart’s Don Giovanni were followed by important engagements at German opera houses, such as Berg’s Lulu (Basel), Ligeti’s Le grand macabre (Freiburg), Gluck’s Armida (Komische Oper, Berlin) and Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Parsifal (Stuttgart).

Important productions in past seasons were Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten (Zürich, 2013), a double bill of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s castle and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Komische Oper Berlin, 2015), Così fan tutte (Basel, 2015), Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Munich, 2016), Halévy’s La juive (Münchner Opernfestspiele, 2016) and Verdi’s Otello (Staatsoper Hamburg, 2017). In 2018 Bieito will be directing works including Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten at the Komische Oper Berlin and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Festspiele Zürich.