After his San Francisco debut with Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Merola Opera Program / SF Opera), Jan Eßinger is engaged this season for The Rake’s Progress (Igor Stravinsky) at Staatstheater Augsburg and Il viaggio a Reims (G. Rossini) at Theater Krefeld and Mönchengladbach. In addition, an open-air production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore will follow this summer.
Most recently, Jan Eßinger staged Der goldene Drache (P. Eötvös) at MusikTheater an der Wien (Kammeroper), Der Freischütz at Theater Koblenz as well as Carmen at Saarländisches Staatstheater, Le nozze di Figaro at Landestheater Detmold, a world premiere at Philharmonie de Luxembourg and Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss) at Theater Bielefeld.
Jan Eßinger has been working as a freelance director since 2017. He quickly attracted attention with works such as Eugen Onegin at Bregenz Festival, as well as the highly acclaimed baroque discovery Die getreue Alceste (G.C. Schürmann) at “Winter in Schwetzingen” festival. For his production of the Giselher Klebe opera Der jüngste Tag, he was named in the critics‘ poll of the magazine „Die Deutsche Bühne“.
First engaged as a associate director at the Komische Oper Berlin and then in the same position at the Zurich Opera House, he worked with Barrie Kosky, Willy Decker, Andreas Homoki, Tatjana Gürbaca, Calixto Bieito, Stefan Herheim, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Herbert Fritsch and Christof Loy, among others. During this time, Jan Eßinger also staged several productions with the Zurich International Opera Studio.
Since 2020, Jan Eßinger has been regularly requested as lecturer/coach by Berlin University of Arts. Invitations as a coach for scenic workshops have already brought him together with various opera studios.
Jan Eßinger, born in Darmstadt, studied Musiktheaterregie at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre (HfMT) and currently lives in The Hague with his wife and two children.