Jacopo Spirei

Future engagements of Italian director Jacopo Spirei include Carmen Macerata Opera Festival, Ermione Teatro San Carlo Naples and a cycle of the Mozart da Ponte operas for the Landestheater Salzburg, where he was the winner of the audience prize for best production in 2012/2013. Past engagements as director include Falstaff Festival Verdi, Don Giovanni San Francisco Opera, L’elisir d’amore, Falstaff, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Rinaldo Opera Lombardia, Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte, Pilger von Mekka, Brokeback Mountain, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Salzburger Landestheater, Aida Theater Dortmund, Cambiale di Matrimonio Theater an der Wien, Gli equivoci nel sembiante Purtimiro Baroque Festival Lugo di Romagna, The Bear, Maderna’s Satyricon, Matrimonio Segreto Danish Royal Opera, La Cenerentola Festival Internacional de Música, Cartagena, Colombia, Pagliacci Wexford Festival Opera, Bastiano e Bastiana, La Serva Padrona Lugo Opera Festival, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Così fan tutte Ente concerti Marialisa de Carolis, Sassari, and La finta giardiniera, Le nozze di Figaro Cortona, Italy.

Jacopo has worked with Graham Vick as associate and revival director in Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Birmingham Opera Company (including the world premiere of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus licht), Houston Grand Opera, Bregenz festival, New National Theater Tokyo, and Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon (Ring Cycle). He has also worked as an assistant with John Copley, Talmage Fauntleroy, Stefano Vizioli, Franco Ripa di Meana, Stephen Medcalf, and Lorenzo Mariani.

Jacopo Spirei studied arts and drama in Bologna and filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. He enjoys teaching young talents and has a long collaboration with the Opera Academy of the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen. He has worked with young singers of the Accademia della Scala and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is an associate professor for Opera at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts KhiO.

Between 2006 and 2011 he was artistic director and founder of www.spurio.com, an experimental project involving opera, filmmaking, video art and live performance that culminated in the production of a feature film based on the myth of Orpheus with live music composed by Davide Fensi.