Andrea Breth
Director
© Bernd Uhlig
Andrea Breth is making her debut at Oper Frankfurt with this production of Turandot, and returns for another new production in 2026/27. She grew up in Darmstadt and studied literature at Heidelberg University before working as a director’s assistant at the State Theatre there (1972 – 1973). She directed her first productions in Bremen, Wiesbaden, Hamburg and Berlin. She was voted »Director of the Year« by Theater Heute magazine for the first time while working as house director at the Städtische Bühnen in Freiburg (1983-1985). She moved to the Schauspielhaus in Bochum in 1986, where she made a name for herself on the German speaking theatre scene. She was Artistic Director of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin (1992-1997) and House Director at the Burgtheater in Vienna (1999–2019). No less than 14 plays directed by her were invited to the Theater Treffen in Berlin (a big honour). She directed her first opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, at Oper Leipzig in 2000. This was followed by, amongst others, Eugene Onegin at the Salzburg Festival, Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová, Verdi’s La traviata, Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Berg’s Wozzeck at the Staatsoper in the Schillertheater in Berlin, Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz at Stuttgart State Opera and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, a Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle / Schumann Ghost Variations double bill at the Festwochen in Vienna, Prokofiev’s The Gambler, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Verdi’s Macbeth at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam and Cherubini’s Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. Recent operatic productions included Fauré’s Pénélope at the Bayerische Staatsoper (2025) and Madama Butterfly (2024) and Salome (2022) in Aix-en-Provence. Andrea Breth has been awarded many prizes for her work, including the Nestroy Theater Prize (2003, 2011, 2016 & 2019), the 2006 Berlin Theater Prize, Austria's Honorary Kreuz for Science and the Arts (2009), Germany’s Verdienstkreuz (2015, 2019), a »Der Faust« Theatre Prize (2015), the »Pour le Mérite« order (2018) and the 2022 Austrian Musiktheater Prize.