Lydia Steier

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Came to Berlin in 2002 as a Fulbright Scholar. She has directed at major opera houses including Stuttgart State Opera, Los Angeles Opera and the Komische Oper Berlin since 2009. She has already been nominated twice for the FAUST Prize. Steier’s production of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s «Donnerstag aus ‹Licht›» at Theater Basel was named «Production of the Year» by «Opernwelt» magazine in 2016. Since then she has directed Jean-Baptiste Lully’s «Armide» (2017, Staatstheater Mainz), Giacomo Puccini’s «Turandot» (2017, Cologne Opera), Georg Friedrich Handel’s «Alcina» (2017, Theater Basel), Louis Hector Berlioz’ «Les Troyens» (2017, Saxon State Opera Dresden), Igor Stravinsky’s «The Rake’s Progress» (2018, Theater Basel), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s «The Magic Flute» (2018, Salzburg Festival), Igor Stravinsky’s «Oedipus Rex»/ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s «Iolanta» (2018, Frankfurt Opera), Leoš Janácek’s «Katja Kabanova» (2019, Staatstheater Mainz), the world premiere of Michael Wertmüller and Dea Loher’s «Diodati. Unendlich» (2019, Theater Basel), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s «Queen of Spades» (2019, Deutsche Oper am Rhein), Jacques Fromental Halévy’s «La Juive» (2019, Hanover State Opera), Jean-Philippe Rameau’s «Les Indes galants» (2019, Grand Théâtre de Genève) and Georges Bizet’s «Carmen» (2020, Cologne Opera). With «The Urge» by Franz Xaver Kroetz she is directing a work of spoken drama for the first time.