BIO
Born in Brazil and having moved to Europe at the age of nineteen, I experience the contradictions and complements that exist in feeling very Brazilian and European at the same time.
As a teenager, I thought I was going into Diplomacy. I started studying Law at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, where I come from, but that wasn’t it… I interrupted college and tried to get to know myself better away from what was familiar to me.
As an Au-Pair I took care of children in Germany; I’m even in contact with some of them today! After a year, my visa expired. I went to Italy to see my relatives in Sicily and afterwards spent some time living illegally there.
I accompanied a schizophrenic girl in Ravenna for a few months – quite a hard experience – and then moved to Florence, where I cleaned residential buildings, industries and ended up selling umbrellas at the San Lorenzo market. At night, I used to take classes of dance and participated at the school’s dance group. I had already danced a little in Brazil and wanted to continue.
In the meantime, I felt more and more that I wanted to work in the living arts. I had written a play at sixteen and, since I was fourteen, had been a member of the school drama group. I couldn’t get admitted to the DAMS in Bologna due to certain bureaucracies, but was accepted for the preparatory course at the University of Cologne and I returned to Germany. Practically at that same moment, the process of obtaining the Italian citizenship – my father’s father was Sicilian – was completed and I came out of illegality.
I did the first part of my studies in Theatre, Film and Television Sciences (with History of Art and Philosophy as secondary faculties) in Cologne. The second part was done at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris through the Erasmus Program. Initially, I concentrated a lot on themes more related to cinema, however, one of the Professors had contacts in the Opera de Paris and, in this way, together with my fellow students, I was able to follow the development of some productions.
While still in Cologne, I had started to take some lyric singing lessons and the visits to rehearsals in Paris and the shows themselves revealed to me an artistic language that synthesized many other artistic languages and combined them with the possibility of ecstasy. This was decisive in my choice to work in this field.
After two years in Paris, I moved in London, where I wrote my master’s thesis and, finally, went back to Cologne for the faculty’s final exams. During all this university period I did a lot of cleaning, I worked as a night porter in hotels or as a salesman in department stores. On the day of the ceremony, where I was supposed to receive my diploma, I met the Director Jean-Marc Bory, who gave me the first professional opportunity in my field: to be his Assistant for a production of Mozart’s « Lucio Silla » in Lausanne, with a rerun in Caen. He liked my work and we had a few other proposals lined up, but, unfortunately, he died suddenly soon after. With what I had saved, I went to Berlin to do an apprenticeship at the Deutsche Oper. There happened a combination of good circumstances, because, in less than six months, I was hired as an Assistant Director/Rerun Director.
Take a look at my CV
Latest:
Aug- Oct 2024 Co-Director for the revival of Christiane Jatahy’s production Nabucco at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo
Aug 2022 and Jul – Aug 2024 Director respectively of Die Zauberflöte and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Munotspiele in Schaffhausen, Switzerland
May – June 2024 Revival Director of Christiane Jatahy’s production of Nabucco at the Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville
Aug – Oct 2023 Revival Director of Claus Guth’s production of Don Carlo at the Latvian National Opera and Ballet, Riga
Feb – Mar 2023 Revival Director of Andrei Serban’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opera National de Paris/ Bastille
Jan 2023 Revival Director of Claus Guth’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Canadian Opera Company
Jul 2018 and Jul 2019 Director of respectively Cosí Fan Tutte and Hänsel und Gretel at the Festival de Opera San Luis (San Luis Potosí / Mexico)
General:
Dec 2006 – present freelancing Revival Director / Associate Director / Assistant Director for the following productions:
Teatro Real Madrid: Iolanta/Persephone (Peter Sellars), La Clemenza di Tito in 2012 and 2016 (Karl Ernst und Ursel Herrmann), Boris Gudonov (Johan Simons), Macbeth (Dmitri Cherniakov), Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexiko (Pierre Audi), Charles Wourinen’s Brokeback Mountain (Ivo van Hove), Lohengrin (Lukas Hemleb); Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Christoph Marthaler); Cosí fan Tutte (Michael Haneke) also at the Wiener Festwochen; C(H)OEURS (Alain Platel) also at the Holland Festival, Ludwigsburger Festspiele, Diaghilev Festival / Perm – Russia, Concertgebouw Brugge and at La Monnaie/De Munt, La fille du Régiment (Laurent Pelly), Parsifal (Claus Guth), Rodelinda (Claus Guth), Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Leonard Foglia), Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten (Calixto Bieito), Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung (Robert Carsen), Le Nozze di Figaro (Claus Guth), Nabucco (Andreas Homoki), Aribert Reimann’s Lear (Calixto Bieito)
Gran Teatre del Liceu – Barcelona: Britten’s The War Requiem (Daniel Kramer), Anna Bolena (Rafel Duràn), Tristan und Isolde (Thor Steingraber), Rosenkavalier (Uwe Eric Laufenberg), King Roger (David Pountney), L’Incoronazione di Poppea (David Alden), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Claus Guth), Revival Director of Handel’s Rodelinda (Claus Guth)
Opéra National de Paris – Garnier: Don Giovanni (Ivo van Hove), Medée (David McVicar)
Royal Opera House – Covent Garden: Niobe by Agostino Steffani (Lukas Hemleb), The Rake’s Progress (Robert Lepage); Niobe also at Teatro São Carlos – Lisbon, Schwetzinger Festspiele and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg
Grand Théâtre de Genève: Andrea Chenier (John Dew), Iphigénie en Tauride (Lukas Hemleb), Die Zauberflöte (Daniel Kramer / Jürgen Rose), Falstaff (Lukas Hemleb), Carmen (Reinhild Hoffmann), Nabucco (Christiane Jatahy)
Teatro di San Carlo, Naples Don Carlo (Director Claus Guth)
Ruhrtriennale: Das Rheingold and Alceste (Johan Simons)
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen: Don Carlos (Johan Simons)
Salzburger Festspiele: Elektra (Nikolaus Lehnhoff)
Glyndebourne Festival Opera: Tristan und Isolde (Nikolaus Lehnhoff) in 2007 and 2009
Nederlandse Nationale Opera & Ballet – Amsterdam: Associate Director for Die Entführung aus dem Serail(Johan Simons)
Teatro de la Maestranza Seville: Revival Director for La fille du Régiment (Laurent Pelly)
Opéra National de Montpellier: Revival Director of Rossini’s Semiramide (Kirsten Harms)
Staatstheater Darmstadt: Ainadamar by Oswaldo Golijow (Mei Hong Lin) – European premiere
Opernhaus Chemnitz: Revival Director of Parsifal (John Dew)
Teatro Carlo Felice – Genoa: The Love for the Three Oranges (Andreas Homoki)
Deutsche Oper Berlin: Semiramide (Kirsten Harms), Idomeneo (Hans Neuenfels), La Sonnambula (John Dew), Werther (Sebastian Baumgarten) and Salome (Achim Freyer)
Feb – Mar 2016 Interpretation and Acting Coach / Stage Director for an Opera Workshop at the Fundación Albéniz in Madrid
Oct 2015 and Oct 2018 Interpretation and Acting Coach / Stage Director for an Opera Workshop at the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen, Germany
Jul – Oct 2015 Producer, Director and Performer of the video dance project I ME AND MYSELFIE 108
Feb 2014 – 2016 Co-Director (with Johan Simons) for the scenic version of Schubert’s Winterreise premiered in Paris at the Cité de la Musique and then revived at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, at the Philarmony in Rotterdam, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, at the Maison de la Culture in Grenoble (France), at Le Volcan in Le Havre (France) and at the Philarmonie in Cologne(Germany)
Jul 2013 and Jul 2014 Interpretation Coach, Acting Coach and Stage Director at the 12º and 13º Encuentro Internacional de Ópera in Saltillo, Mexico
Jun – Sept 2006 Director of After Hours – techno opera based on the film by Martin Scorsese at Berghain, Berlin
Aug – Oct 2005 Producer of the photo installation Bem-vindos – Berlim, CE at Museu do Ceará (Fortaleza, CE – Brazil); Direction and Screenplay Advisor to Karim Aïnouz during the filming of Suely in the Sky in Brazil; Camera for the respective Making Of ; Director of the documentary film essay Making Off
Feb 2014 – 2016 Co-Director (with Johan Simons) for the scenic version of Sc
Aug 2001 – Jul 2005 Company Member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Staff, Revival and Assistant Director for the following productions:
Pelléas et Mélisande (Marco Arturo Marelli), From the House of the Dead (Volker Schlöndorff), Faust (John Dew), Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci (David Pountney), Don Pasquale (Jean-Louis Martinoty), I Puritani (John Dew), Die Tote Stadt (Phillipe Arlaud), La Fanciulla del West (Vera Nemirova), Werther (Sebastian Baumgarten), Idomeneo (Hans Neuenfels), Salome (Achim Freyer), Semiramide (Kirsten Harms), Les Contes d‘Hoffmann (Sven Eric Bechtolf), Fidelio (Chistoph Nel), Verdi‘s Requiem (scenic version by Achim Freyer), Elektra (Ernst Schröder), Saint François d‘Assise (Daniel Libeskind)
Choreographer of the II Act Pantomime in From the House of the Dead (Volker Schlöndorff)
Aug 2000 – May 01 Assistant Director to Jean Marc Bory for Lucio Silla (co-production Opéra de Lausanne and Théâtre de Caen)
Actual Projects
Director of Wiegenlied für Raubtiere, a play with Mahler Songs;
Director of Campo de Flores, based on the song cycle Nacimientos by Tom Randle, inspired by Pablo Neruda’s poems;
Director of UNPARK ONE, a dance theatre play for people with Parkinson’s disease;
Co-Director for the revival of Nabucco (Christiane Jatahy) in Jan – Feb 2026 at the Opera Vlaanderen, Antwerp and Apr – May 2026 at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg;
Director Assistant for Mitridate (Claus Guth) Feb – Apr 2025 at the Teatro Real Madrid;
Revival Director of Don Carlo (Claus Guth) in Jan 2025 at Teatro di San Carlo Napoli;
Revival Director of Die Zauberflöte (Jürgen Rose) in Feb 2025 at Theater Bonn
Education
July 2000
Master of Arts in Sciences of Theatre, Cinema and Television at the Universität zu Köln (Cologne, Germany)
Art History and Philosophy as secondary disciplines, partially achieved at the Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III
Language Skills
Portuguese (first language), German, Italian, English, French and Spanish spoken and written; level B2 of Catalan and Greek and A1 of Dutch
