One of the most renowned theatre and opera directors of our time.
Born in 1967 in Melbourne, he is the grandson of Jewish emigrants from Europe. He attended Melbourne High School, where he first tried his hand at directing. He trained at the St Martins Youth Arts Centre, and from 1985 he studied music history and piano at the University of Melbourne, where he staged Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and several theatre plays at the student theatre.
In 2006, the eight-hour production “The Lost Echo” for the actors of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, based on Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and Euripides’ “The Bacchae”, won five Helpmann Awards.
From 2012 to 2022, Barrie Kosky served as Intendant of the Komische Oper Berlin. His eclectic and radical programming of operas, operettas, and musicals brought the theatre numerous international awards and critical acclaim. The magazine Opernwelt named the Komische Oper “Opera House of the Year” (for the 2012/2013 season) and Barrie Kosky “Director of the Year” (2016).
In 2017, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival with Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, becoming the first director of Jewish descent in the festival’s history. He was also the first person outside the Wagner family to stage the opera there.
In 2009, as part of the Territory Festival in Moscow, Lisa Lim’s opera “The Navigator”, directed by Kosky (a co-production between the Brisbane Festival and the Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2008), was presented at the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre.
The Komische Oper’s production of “The Magic Flute”, directed by Barrie Kosky and the performance group 1927 (Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt), toured to Moscow and was performed on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in 2017.
Born in 1967 in Melbourne, he is the grandson of Jewish emigrants from Europe. He attended Melbourne High School, where he first tried his hand at directing. He trained at the St Martins Youth Arts Centre, and from 1985 he studied music history and piano at the University of Melbourne, where he staged Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and several theatre plays at the student theatre.
In 2006, the eight-hour production “The Lost Echo” for the actors of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, based on Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and Euripides’ “The Bacchae”, won five Helpmann Awards.
From 2012 to 2022, Barrie Kosky served as Intendant of the Komische Oper Berlin. His eclectic and radical programming of operas, operettas, and musicals brought the theatre numerous international awards and critical acclaim. The magazine Opernwelt named the Komische Oper “Opera House of the Year” (for the 2012/2013 season) and Barrie Kosky “Director of the Year” (2016).
In 2017, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival with Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, becoming the first director of Jewish descent in the festival’s history. He was also the first person outside the Wagner family to stage the opera there.
In 2009, as part of the Territory Festival in Moscow, Lisa Lim’s opera “The Navigator”, directed by Kosky (a co-production between the Brisbane Festival and the Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2008), was presented at the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre.
The Komische Oper’s production of “The Magic Flute”, directed by Barrie Kosky and the performance group 1927 (Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt), toured to Moscow and was performed on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in 2017.
