Paul Curran
Stage Director
Award winning director Paul Curran is one of the most sought after stage directors of his generation. Current and future engagements include La Traviata Arena di Verona Opera Festival, La Clemenza di Tito Teatro la Fenice, La Fanciulla del West Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Tristan und Isolde San Francisco Opera, Madama Butterfly Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Tosca Canadian Opera Company, Carmen Opera Philadelphia and Seattle Opera, My Fair Lady Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli, Der fliegende Holländer Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Die Fledermaus and Pique Dame Grange Festival Opera and The Bartered Bride Garsington Opera.
Past production highlights include La Donna del Lago (DVD) Metropolitan Opera, The Tsar’s Bride Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Tannhäuser Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Paul worked with the most important opera companies all over the world and was Artistic Director of the Norwegian National Opera from 2007 to 2011. Other important past projects were Pastorale (world premiere) Staatstheater Stuttgart Ariadne auf Naxos Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Der Fliegende Holländer, Bolshoi Theatre, Rusalka New National Theatre Tokyo, La Cenerentola Teatro Maestranza Seville, Tristan und Isolde Teatro La Fenice Venice, Il Trovatore Teatro Regio Torino, and Peter Grimes Savonlinna Opera Festival. His production of Humperdinck’s Die Königskinder Teatro San Carlo won the Italian Critics’ Prize, Premio Abbiati. For Hamlet for the Clerkenwell Music Series he worked with designer Vivienne Westwood.
Other past productions include Teatro Giuseppe Verdi Trieste, Norwegian National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Utah Opera, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon Ekaterinburg Opera, Göttingen Händel Festival, Brisbane Baroque Festival, Les Arts Valencia, Opera di Roma, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Covent Garden Festival, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall.
Paul is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.
Management
Christopher Broom
Phone: +44 208 768 6604
Mobile: +44 7778794397
Email: chris@atholestill.co.uk
Representation: World ex Italy,
"Director Paul Curran, making his company debut, is Kim’s partner in dramatic effectiveness. Working within designer Robert Innes Hopkins’ straightforward set of two large panels — arranged in each act to represent a ship, a castle courtyard, and Tristan’s home in Brittany, respectively — Curran’s direction is unmannered and frank, expressing physically what’s happening in the music and the text. Throughout this production, small gestures are particularly telling — a glance or a glare, a raised hand that stops a singer’s outburst — and they have immense cumulative power."
San Francisco Chronicle
"Mr. Curran, in his overdue Covent Garden debut, ensures that the modern accouterments are tellingly used to work hand-in-hand with a taut staging of the core drama."
George Loomis, New York Times.
"Paul Curran’s lavish production ignores the nostalgia for the ancien regime which Rimsky’s score emanates (the anthem “Slava!” functions as a leitmotiv and there are several pseudo-folk tunes). Instead he opts for a grittily contemporary approach, evoking the gloss and squalor of Putin’s Moscow through Kevin Knight’s magnificent sets (a posh restaurant, a back street, a penthouse suite, a gilded palace), complete with table-dancers and mafia heavies.
"
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph.
"A Russian rarity proves to be a real treasure in a production set amid the trappings of new money.”
…[a] compelling study of power and powerlessness in Curran's staging.
…this is a riveting performance of a violent, delirious melodrama.
"
Anna Picard, The Independent.
"ALBERT HERRING
Los Angeles Opera, Cond. James Conlon
“Paul Curran’s production is terrific, particularly citing clever blocking and fluid set changes melding the acts together during interludes.”
"
"Paul Curran’s staging observes much fine detail while relaying an expertly conceived overview; indeed, there are stretches of sheer virtuosity in his memorable handling of a story laden with interior darkness and ambiguity. "
The Stage
"Curran is one of the most underrated directors of his generation, a regular guest in some of Italy’s most important theatres, but virtually a prophet unsung in his own land. This greatly enjoyable Fledermaus (...) can be added to the tally of Curran’s smash hits."
Hugh Canning's Operalogue
