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.
