Claus Guth was born in Frankfurt and studied Philosophy, German Literature and Drama at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and then stage direction at Munich’s August Everding Theatre Academy. After making his debut in Munich, Mannheim and Hamburg, his career took on an international dimension after he directed the world premiere production of Luciano Berio’s Cronaca del luogo at the 1999 Salzburg Festival. He has made regular guest appearances at that festival since then, where his productions of Iphigénie en Tauride, Zaide. Così fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni were all highly acclaimed by the critics. He directed The Flying Dutchman at the Bayreuth Festival in 2003 and is a regular guest at the Zurich Opera, where he has staged numerous works including Fierrabras (a production that was also presented at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2006), Radamisto, Tristan et Isolde, and Parsifal. He collaborates frequently with the Frankfurt Opera where his productions of Daphné (2010) and Pelléas et Mélisande (2012) earnt him the prestigious Faust Prize on two occasions and he makes regular visits to the Theater an der Wien where he has directed Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria as well as a stage version of Handel’s Messiah. His other productions include the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, Die Meistersinger von Nürenberg at the Dresden Semperoper, Tannhäuser at the Vienna Staatsoper, Lohengrin at Milan’s La Scala and the Paris Opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten at Milan’s La Scala and London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Martinů’s Juliette at the Berlin Staatsoper, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Puccini’s Il Trittico at the Frankfurt Opera, Salomé at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Rigoletto and La Bohème at the Paris Opera, Jephtha at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Rodelinda at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and La Clemenza di Tito at the Glyndebourne Festival. Claus Guth is also highly involved in the field of contemporary music and has staged numerous creations including Peter Ruzicka’s Celan in Dresden, SehnSuchtMeer (Richard Wagner / Helmut Oehring) in Düsseldorf, Aschemond oder The Fairie Queen (Helmut Oehring / Henry Purcell) at the Berlin Staatsoper, and Lazarus (Franz Schubert / Charles Ives) at the Theater an der Wien.