Jan Eßinger’s schedule this season included new stagings of FAUST at Landestheater Detmold, the very first new production of the house’s incoming artistic director, HÄNSEL UND GRETEL at Theater Bielefeld, and ALBERT HERRING at Theater Koblenz. He makes his Bregenz Festival debut in August 2019 with a new production of EUGEN ONEGIN.
Next season includes his debut at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg as well as his return to Theater Bielefeld with Prokofjew’s DIE LIEBE ZU DEN DREI ORANGEN.
After his successful directorial debut at Opernhaus Zürich with Martinů’s ZWEIMAL ALEXANDER in the 2013/14 season, Jan Eßinger directed Britten’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW, replacing the ill Willy Decker the following fall. In May 2015 he directed the Swiss premiere of Oscar Strasnoy’s SLUTCHAI – FÄLLE with the International Opera Studio in Zürich. Jan Eßinger’s staging of the Ravel double-bill L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE and L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILEGES followed at Theater Winterthur in 2017 and Opernhaus Zürich 2018.
From 2010 to 2013 Jan Eßinger worked as assistant director and revival director at Komische Oper Berlin and was subsequently engaged in the same roles at Opernhaus Zürich until the summer of 2017. In Berlin and Zürich he collaborated with major stage directors such as Barrie Kosky, Andreas Homoki, Calixto Bieito, Stefan Herheim, Willy Decker, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Christof Loy.
Born in 1983 in Darmstadt, Jan Eßinger studied music theater directing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. He worked as assistant director at the major opera houses in Vienna, Hamburg, Leipzig and Geneva, as well as the Bayreuth Festival, Wiener Festwochen and Bregenz Festival. Today he lives with his family in Berlin.