PHILIPPE ARLAUD - Stage

Philippe Arlaud studied History of Art and Art Education at the National Theatre of Strasbourg and has been working on the set design of opera and spoken drama ever since. For his stage direction works, he creates the stage design as well as the light design. His performances could be seen in the most world-renowned houses, such as in New York, St. Petersburg and Paris.

The success of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Wiener Kammeroper increased his celebrity in Austria, where the city of Vienna awarded him twice with the Kainz- Medaille for his art works as a director. At the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, he staged Carmen, Così fan tutte, West Side Story, La Traviata, Fidelio, Rigoletto and Falstaff. He also performed Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix at La Scala in Milan and Les contes d ́Hoffmann in Tokyo. The production André Chénier, he put together in Tokyo was soon adopted by the opera house in Barcelona.

In Geneva, he worked on a Monteverdi-cycle combining L ́Orfeo, Il ritorno d ́Ulisse in patria and L ́incoronazione di Poppea, in Darmstadt he staged Henze’s Elegie für junge Liebende as well as the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin. He also directed Astor Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires at the Bregenz Festival and stages regularly at the Opera in Strasbourg, where he lastly presented Verdi’s Maskenball as well as Je t'aime moi non plus, a project combining different operas put together for young singers for the Opera Studio in Strasbourg.

With his Tannhäuser, presented between 2002 and 2007 on the Grüner Hügel, Philippe Arlaud is the only French director besides Patrice Chéreau, who was invited to stage a performance at the 140-year-old Bayreuth Festival.

After having presented Carmen at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Philippe Arlaud staged Strawinsky’s Geschichte vom Soldaten for the Feldkirch Festival in 2010, as well as his new interpretation of Strauss’ Arabella in Tokyo in November and his premiere of Lakmé in Saint Petersburg in December.

Since 2006, Philippe Arlaud is the director of the Feldkirch Festival. Additionally, he supports young artists by giving courses at the École Supérieure d’Art Dramatique du Théâtre National de Strasbourg, at the university in Graz and at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg.