Tatjana Gürbaca

Tatjana Gürbaca, who was born in 1973, studied directing at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in her native Berlin. There she took courses with Ruth Berghaus, Peter Konwitschny, Willy Decker, and Christine Mielitz. During her training, she began staging her own productions at the Schlosstheater in Rheinsberg and also directed a guest production at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Saalbau Neukölln. From 1998 to 2001, Tatjana Gürbaca served as directorial assistant at Graz Opera, where she collaborated with Peter Konwitschny, Martin Kušej, Marc Gunther, and Christof Loy, among others. Since 2001 she has been working as a freelance opera director and has staged more than 30 productions covering the operatic spectrum from the baroque (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden) to such contemporary works of music theater as Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (Vienna Volksoper), Philippe Hersant's Le moine noir (world premiere at Leipzig Opera), and Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (Theater Bremen). Tatjana Gürbaca has also staged operas for Deutsche Oper Berlin (Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer), Flemish Opera in Antwerp (Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa and Eugene Onegin), the Mainz Staatstheater (Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Massenet’s Werther and Manon, and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride), and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf (Strauss’s Salome). Her account of Puccini’s Turandot, which she staged at Graz Opera, won her a nomination as Best New Artist in Opernwelt’s annual poll; her interpretations of Così fan tutte at Lucerne Theater and of Mazeppa at Bern Theater were nominated for the Best Director category in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Tatjana Gürbaca makes her LUCERNE FESTIVA L debut with this performance.

July 2010