Arnaud BERNARD directorAt six years old he began studying the violin, and he kept on practising it at the Strasbourg Conservatory, taking part in 1986 in the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, experience which was undertaken with the precise intention to train himself for the career as an opera director. In 1988 he gave up the violin to participate as an assistant to some productions in France and Germany, and in 1989 he was employed as stage manager and director assistant at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. In this role he works not only in Toulouse but also - as Nicolas Joel assistant - in many theatres in France and abroad, including prestigious stages such as Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, La Scala and the Teatro Colón. In 1995 he signed his

first direction in Toulouse with Il trovatore, and made his debut, at the age of 29, in the United States with Falstaff in Charleston for the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In 1996 he was appointed as associate director and stage director at the Théâtre du Capitole, a role which he left in 1998 to devote himself permanently to direction on his own. In 1999 Roméo et Juliette Opera in Chicago; in 2001 L'elisir d'amore at Capitole (with Marcelo Alvarez); in 2002 Il Trittico in Nantes and Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer at the Martina Franca Festival; in 2003 Lakmé by Delibes at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Roméo et Juliette in Tokyo, Werther in Martina Franca, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor by Nicolai in Nantes; Luisa Miller in 2004 in Holland and Le roi de Lahore at La Fenice in Venice; in 2005 La Bohème and Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona in Lausanne. Recently he staged Luisa Miller at La Fenice, La Traviata in Prague and Lausanne, a new Falstaff for the opening season of the San Carlo in Naples, Rigoletto in Marseille, a new Falstaff in Buenos Aires, Rigoletto and I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Verona, Cavalleria Rusticana e Madama Butterfly a Ancona, Cavalleria Rusticana in St. Gallen, Carmen in Helsinki, Lausanne and Tokyo, La dama di picche in Toulouse, Thaïs in Athens (Megaron), Falstaff in Bilbao and Lausanne and La Juive in St. Petersburg, Die Zauberflöte in Athens, Il Trittico in Zagreb, Romeo e Giulietta in Lausanne, Marseille and Bilbao, La Bohème in St. Petersburg, Tosca for Opera at Caracalla in Rome, i Capuleti e i Montecchi in Oslo, Carmen in St. Petersburg, Rigoletto (2011) and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (2013) in Verona, Cavalleria rusticana and Madama Butterfly in Ancona, Rigoletto at the San Carlo in Naples, a new Falstaff at the Opera in Budapest, Romeo e Giulietta in Liege, I Capuleti e I Montecchi in Venice, in Oman, in Athens and in Oviedo, Manon in Lausanne, La Bohème in Sao Paulo and Rio, Roméo et Juliette in Hong-Kong...

Recent projects include: Manon in Monte-Carlo, Tosca in Prague, Carmen in Helsinki, I vespri Siciliani with Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky.

Upcoming productions: Nabucco at the Mariinsky, Simone Boccanegra in Losanna, Queen of Spades in Oslo…