Georges Delnon
Georges Delnon was born in 1958 in Zurich. He studied history and art history at the Universities of Bern and Friborg as well as composition and music theory at the Bern Conservatory. Positions as assistant director, including works with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Götz Friedrich and Giorgio Strehler, completed his training.
This was followed by the first opera and theater productions such as "Carmen" and "Fledermaus" at the Frankfurt Opera, "Dido" in Toulouse, "Rape of Lucretia" in Dusseldorf and Basel, "Fräulein Julie" in Essen, "La Griselda" (Vivaldi) in Geneva, "Junge Lord" (Henze), "Maria Stuart" and "Ezio" for the Händel Festival in Karlsruhe, "Schwarze Spinne" (Sutermeister), "Das Lachen der Schafe" (Demierre) and "König für einen Tag" (Grünauer) for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. In 1996, he took over his first artistic directon at the Theater of the City of Koblenz and became co-founder of the Koblenz fortress games. From 1999-2006, he became Artistic Director of the Staatstheater Mainz, where numerous works were created. Among other things, the reopening of the Great House was broadcasted live on 3Sat in 2001 with the staging of the opera "Saul" by G. F. Händel.
Other works as director during this period include "Il figlio delle selve" by Ignaz Holzbauer for the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Féstival Radio France Montpellier. In addition, Georges Delnon appeared as an actor in the movie “HEIMAT 3” by Edgar Reitz.
In 2004, he directed the world premiere of Mark André, "22.13", for the Munich Biennale, the Festival d'Automne à Paris and the Opéra National de Paris. In 2005 and 2006, he staged the world premiere "Zaubern" by Frederik Zeller and the baroque opera "Proserpina" by Joseph Martin Kraus for the Schwetzinger Festspiele.
From 2006 to 2015, Georges Delnon has been director of the Theatre Basel, Switzerland's largest three-party house. Under his leadership, the theatre became Opera House of the Year in the Opernwelt Critics Survey twice, in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, he directed Giuseppe Verdi's TV production "Aida am Rhein", which was broadcasted live on Swiss television and on 3Sat.
In 2012, he directed the world premiere of Alfred Zimmerlin's music theatre "Das Licht" for the Lucerne Festival and in 2013 "Anschlag", also for the Lucerne Festival and märz musik Berlin.
From 2009 to 2016, Georges Delnon was Artistic Director of the Music Theatre of the Schwetzinger SWR Festival. The two world premieres "Proserpina" in 2009 and "Koma" in 2016 were honored in the critics' poll of the opera world as "premiere of the year".
Since 2015, he is the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. Under his leadership, Alban Berg's "Lulu" is voted "Performance of the Year" in the critics' survey of the opera world in 2017, and director Christoph Marthaler receives the Faust Prize for this production. In the summer of 2018, Georges Delnon's Hamburg staging of the Zauberflöte for young people "Erzittre, feiger Bösewicht", was screened in Shanghai. In 2019 he staged the chamber opera "THERÈSE", which was premiered at the Salzburg Easter Festival and celebrated its German premiere in the Recital Hall of the Elbphilharmonie at the Hamburg International Music Festival.
