Sergio Morabito

Sergio Morabito, born in Frankfurt/Main, studied at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, graduating with a Master’s Degree. During his studies, he interned at Frankfurt Opera, including among other productions the »Frankfurt Ring« directed by Ruth Berghaus. He was invited by Klaus Zehelein to Stuttgart State Opera, where he was dramaturge and director from 1993 to 2018 and chief dramaturge from 2011. His collaboration with Jossi Wieler, originally a theatrical director, began in 1993. Together, and mostly in cooperation with set and costume designer Anna Viebrock, they have directed productions in Stuttgart since 1994 including »L’italiana in Algeri«, »Alcina«, »L’incoronazione di Poppea«, »Siegfried«, »Don Carlos«, »Norma«, »Moses und Aron«, »Una cosa rara« and »Káťa Kabanová«. Their production of »Ariadne auf Naxos« at the 2001 Salzburg Festival was voted »Production of the Year« in an »Opernwelt« survey of critics. They also won the award for their productions of Busoni’s »Doktor Faust« in San Francisco and Stuttgart in 2005, Gluck’s »Alceste« in 2006 and »La sonnambula« in 2012. Their »Alcina« was invited to the Budapest Spring Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival, their »Norma« was invited to the Novaya Opera Moscow in 2005, the Teatro Massimo Palermo in 2014 and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2017- Their production of Debussy’s »Pelléas et Mélisande« for the Hanover State Opera was invited to the Vienna Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. They presented Mozart’s »Lucio Silla« and a Mozart/Da Ponte cycle at the Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam They directed Dvořáks »Rusalka« for the 2008 Salzburg Festival, a production also presented in 2012 at London’s Royal Opera House and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. »La Juive« (Halévy), directed for Stuttgart in 2008, was booked for the Semperoper, and their production of »Un ballo in maschera« for the Berlin State Opera in the same year was taken up by the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto. »La Juive« marked the beginning of their collaboration with set designer Bert Neumann, which led to five more joint productions before his death in 2015. Wieler and Morabito were voted »Director team of the year« in 2002 and 2012. They received the Deutscher Theaterpreis »Der Faust« in 2006 in the category »Best opera production« for their production of »Doktor Faust«, and again in 2012 for the Schoenberg-Janáček double bill »Die glückliche Hand»/»Osud«. Morabito has published numerous articles in the professional magazines, collected volumes and programmes, taught courses at Frankfurt, Leipzig and Stuttgart universities, and led workshops at the Moscow Territory Festival and is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste. In 2011 he published »OPER: ein Bilder-Lese-Buch« jointly with Wieler and the photographer A. T Schaefer, and his book »Opernarbeit. Texte aus 25 Jahren« appeared in 2019. In 2011-2018 he was chief dramaturge in the management team at Stuttgart Opera, which was voted »Opera house of the year« in 2016. He was appointed an Honorary Member of Stuttgart State Theatre in 2018. Other joint premières with Wieler: »L’Écume des jours« by Edison Denisov (which won the 2013 International Diaghilev Award), the world premières of Mark Andre’s »wunderzaichen« und Toshio Hosokawa’s »Erdbeben.Träume», Wagner’s »Tristan und Isolde» Niccolò Jommelli’s »Il Vologeso« (winner of the 2014 »Rediscovery of the year« award), Verdi’s »Rigoletto«, Beethoven’s »Fidelio«, Bellini’s »I Puritani«, Tchaikovskys »Pique Dame«, Handel’s »Ariodante«, Donizetti’s »Don Pasquale« and Weber’s »Der Freischütz«. Sergio Morabito is chief dramaturge at the Wiener Staatsoper from the 2020/21 season.