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Biography

The internationally up-and-coming Swiss director is the winner of the 2019 Götz Friedrich Prize and was a semi-finalist at the Ring Award Graz 2020.

Since 2015, Nina Russi has staged musical theatre works at the Zürich Opera House, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Theater Aachen, Theater St. Gallen, and Konzert Theater Bern, among others. Her productions are characterised by psychologically subtle characters as well as energetic and strong visual realisations, always searching for existential and topical themes in the works and consistently illuminating the tradition-laden narrative structures from the female perspective.

As part of Leonard Bernstein's anniversary year 2018/2019, Nina Russi staged a double bill of his operatic works "A Quiet Place" and "Trouble in Tahiti" at Theater Aachen, which was celebrated by audiences and press alike. This was honoured by the German Opera Conference with the 2019 Götz Friedrich Prize.
In the following seasons, she staged Antonio Vivaldi's "Bajazet (Il Tamerlano)" at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Leoš Janáček's "The Makropulos Affair" and Richard Strauss' "Elektra" at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata" at the Theater St. Gallen, and in 2024 Georg Friedrich Händel's "Alcina" at Darmstadt State Theatre and his "Serse" at the Zurich Opera House.

Other past productions at Zurich Opera House include Mark-Anthony Turnage's fantasy opera "Coraline", the highly acclaimed world premiere of the chamber opera "Der Traum von Dir" by Swiss composer Xavier Dayer, based on the novella "Brief einer Unbekannten" by Stefan Zweig, and the two contemporary children's operas "Die Gänsemagd" by Iris ter Schiphorst and "Gold!" by Leonard Evers. She staged the world premiere of the family opera "Reise nach Tripiti" at the Winterthur Theatre and the Konzert Theater Bern.

In 2025 Nina Russi will make her directorial debut at Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck with Richard Strauss’ «Ariadne auf Naxos».

As a scholarship holder, Nina Russi has taken part in various international directing programmes: International Summer Arts Program in Watermill (NY) under the artistic direction of Robert Wilson; Directors’ Lab at the Lincoln Theater Center in New York; Internationales Forum at the Berlin Theatertreffen; scholarship programme of the Richard Wagner Foundation at the Bayreuth Festival. A directing scholarship from the European Network of Opera Academies took her to the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. She also took part in the Woman Opera Makers Workshop with Katie Mitchell at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

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Artist Website

www.ninarussi.ch

Management

General Management

Artist Manager

Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir
Artist Manager
ingunn@orlob.net
Mobil: +49-173-2 067 821

Press

Bajazet (Il Tamerlano) / Staatstheater Nürnberg / 29.10.21 / Süddeutsche Zeitung

"zusammen mit der modernen szenischen Fassung von Nina Russi im wunderbar variablen Bühnenbild von Mathis Neidhardt ist das Ganze echtes Musik-Theater!"

Bajazet (Il Tamerlano) / Staatstheater Nürnberg / 25.10.21 / opern.news

"historisch informiert, im Heute spielend und gelungen"

Coraline / Zurich Opera / 16.11.19 / tagblatt.ch

"Action inmitten roter Samtsessel und Stuck"

Trouble in Tahiti & A Quiet Place / Theater Aachen / 16.02.19 / deropernfreund.de

"gelingt eine so unglaublich feingliedrige und auf den Punkt gebrachte Inszenierung"

Trouble in Tahiti & A Quiet Place / Theater Aachen / 10.02.19 / die-deutsche-buehne.de

"Bemerkenswert phantasievoll und voll Funken sprühendem Witz"

Trouble in Tahiti & A Quiet Place / Theater Aachen / 10.02.19 / onlinemerker.com

"Mit solchen Querverbindungen, die mitunter ganz schön ans Herz greifen, bietet Nina Russi eine ganz, ganz große Regiearbeit."

News

Xerxes now also Zurich Opera!

From 29 September 2024, Nina Russi's acclaimed production of Handel's Xerxes can be experienced in Zurich! The ‘effective and dazzling’ (NZZ) production, scenically set in the present time, celebrated its premiere at Theater Winterthur in 2023 and can now be experienced for the first time at the Zurich Opera House. The title role is sung by countertenor Raffaele Pe, Enrico Onofri is conducting.

All performance dates: 29.09.; 05./08./17.10.2024

For more information about the production:
www.opernhaus.ch/ ...

Photo: Herwig Prammer