R.B. Schlather
Director
© Zach Gross
American director R.B. Schlather is back at Oper Frankfurt, where he made his European debut in 2019 with Handel's Tamerlano in the Bockenheimer Depot, which was followed by Cimarosa's L’italiana in Londra, Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Verdi's Macbeth in the main house, for this new production of Agostino Steffani's Amor vien dal destino. He recently made his debut at Den Norske Opera in Oslo and returned to Santa Fe Opera. Recent productions have included Die Zauberflöte and a Purcell / Britten Dido and Aeneas / Rape of Lucretia double bill a Shepherd School of Music / Rice University in Houston, Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Rodelinda in Hudson Hall, where he was also the conductor, Così fan tutte in Santa Fe, Der Freischütz for Wolfl Trap Opera and Salome at the Fisher Center at Bard. These were preceded by, amongst others, John Adams' Doctor Atomic at the Curtis Opera Theatre in Philadelphia, Don Giovanni in co-operation with Opera Philadelphia, Verdi's Macbeth for Syracuse Opera and an evening in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra's Fluxus Actions series in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He also directed Handel's Alcina, Orlando and Ariodante under the auspices of Opera Omaha ONE Festival in a New York art gallery. His Vanessa (Williamstown Theater Festival at HeartBeat Opera) was voted best opera of 2025 by the Washington Post, and his production of Virgil Thompson's The Mother of Us All (Hudson Hall) was included in a list of the best operas of 2017 by the New York Times, he and composer David Hertzberg's The Wake World (Opera Philadelphia) was voted »Best New Opera« by the Music Critics Association of North America, his take on Philip Glass' In the Penal Colony (Boston Lyric Opera, where he graduated from their Emerging Artists Programme) was voted one of the best performances of 2015 by the New York Times.