Biographies
Matthias Janser
Director and Producer
was born in Stuttgart/Germany and studied for a diploma in Technical Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College in London.
As assistant director he has worked regularly with Richard Jones and Graham Vick. Productions include Eugene Onegin for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Die Meistersinger, Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Die Zauberflöte for the Salzburg Festival. Matthias was revival director for Pelléas et Mélisande for Minnesota Opera and De Vlaamse Opera, Werther for the Festival Mozart in A Coruña and he directed the indoor staging of Un Ballo in maschera for the Bregenz Festival.
His work as a director includes the British première of Thomas Bernhard’s The Ignoramus and the Maniac, L'amico Fritz and Manon Lescaut for Opera Holland Park, Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe for the Cheltenham Festival, Soap Opera and Sweeney Agonistes for Trinity College, Don Giovanni for English Touring Opera, La Damnation de Faust for Opera North, the British première of Dvo?ák's Vanda for University College Opera and Amahl and the Night Visitors in Oxford.
In 2007 he gained a Master's Degree in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck University in London and has been working regularly as project manager for Opera Genesis at the Royal Opera House. 2008 he produced the chamber opera Kaspar Hauser for two festivals in London.
As director of education workshops for children and adolescents he is frequently invited by schools and opera companies.
His work as translator include the libretto of Of Mice and Men for the Bregenz Festival and translations for Naxos, Chandos and Opus Arte.
Matthias has been living in Barcelona since 2007.
www.matthiasjanser.com
was born in Stuttgart/Germany and studied for a diploma in Technical Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College in London.
As assistant director he has worked regularly with Richard Jones and Graham Vick. Productions include Eugene Onegin for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Die Meistersinger, Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Die Zauberflöte for the Salzburg Festival. Matthias was revival director for Pelléas et Mélisande for Minnesota Opera and De Vlaamse Opera, Werther for the Festival Mozart in A Coruña and he directed the indoor staging of Un Ballo in maschera for the Bregenz Festival.
His work as a director includes the British première of Thomas Bernhard’s The Ignoramus and the Maniac, L'amico Fritz and Manon Lescaut for Opera Holland Park, Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe for the Cheltenham Festival, Soap Opera and Sweeney Agonistes for Trinity College, Don Giovanni for English Touring Opera, La Damnation de Faust for Opera North, the British première of Dvo?ák's Vanda for University College Opera and Amahl and the Night Visitors in Oxford.
In 2007 he gained a Master's Degree in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck University in London and has been working regularly as project manager for Opera Genesis at the Royal Opera House. 2008 he produced the chamber opera Kaspar Hauser for two festivals in London.
As director of education workshops for children and adolescents he is frequently invited by schools and opera companies.
His work as translator include the libretto of Of Mice and Men for the Bregenz Festival and translations for Naxos, Chandos and Opus Arte.
Matthias has been living in Barcelona since 2007.
www.matthiasjanser.com
Amparo Valle
Actress (La Buena)
Actress (La Buena)
Amparo Valle Vicente was born in Valencia in 1939. Since 1959 she has had a long professional career in cinema, television and theatre.
She has won some of the most prestigious prizes in theatre, where she has also worked as stage director. Theatre productions include Antigona entre Muros, Yerma, Tartuffe, The Good Person of Szechwan and Marat Sade, directed by Adolfo Marsillach. She received the Premio Nacional de Teatro in Spain, Medalla de Oro in Valladolid for best actress in La Murga (1973), the Premio Margarita Xirgu for best actress in La Murga (1973) and best actress during the Festival de Otoño in Madrid (1993).
She has won some of the most prestigious prizes in theatre, where she has also worked as stage director. Theatre productions include Antigona entre Muros, Yerma, Tartuffe, The Good Person of Szechwan and Marat Sade, directed by Adolfo Marsillach. She received the Premio Nacional de Teatro in Spain, Medalla de Oro in Valladolid for best actress in La Murga (1973), the Premio Margarita Xirgu for best actress in La Murga (1973) and best actress during the Festival de Otoño in Madrid (1993).
She acted in movies such as Las truchas under the direction of José Luis García Sánchez, Bajarse al moro by Fernando Colomo (1989), Flores de otro mundo by Icíar Bollaín (1999) for which she won the Premio del Festival Internacional de Cine de Mujeres de Burdeos, Carne de Gallina by Javier Maqua (2002), Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo by Ray Loriga, Bajo las estrellas by Felix Viscarret (2007) and Rosa y Negro by Gérard Jugnot (2010).
She has also played various characters in popular television series such as La que se avecina, Doctor Mateo, Amar en tiempos revueltos, El Comisario, Hospital Central, 7 Vidas, Periodistas and Hermanas.
She has also played various characters in popular television series such as La que se avecina, Doctor Mateo, Amar en tiempos revueltos, El Comisario, Hospital Central, 7 Vidas, Periodistas and Hermanas.
Anke Rauthmann
Actress (Johanna)
born in Hannover, Germany, Anke Rauthmann read literature and sociology at the University of Erlangen/Nürnberg and completed a Masters on British theatre-in-the-round.
Between 1995 and 1999, Anke was assistant director at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and later assisted internationally acclaimed directors including Götz Friedrich, Richard Jones, Jean-Claude Auvray and David Alden at various festivals such as the Bregenz Festival, Tirol Festival, Opera Marseille, Liège, Bilbao, Strasbourg and Avignon. From 2002-2006 she was staff director at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
Since 2006, Anke has been a freelance stage director and librettist working on commissions for Opera Bonn, Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin and Komische Oper Berlin. During this time she also directed for Opera Fürth (Germany) and the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv.
Anke has directed Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Berlin International Opera, the world première of Pacini’s Don Giovanni o il convitato di pietra and Rossini’s La gazza ladra for the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Grigori Frid’s chamber opera The diary of Anne Frank for Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, as well as Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Open Air Festival OperOderSpree.
Between 1995 and 1999, Anke was assistant director at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and later assisted internationally acclaimed directors including Götz Friedrich, Richard Jones, Jean-Claude Auvray and David Alden at various festivals such as the Bregenz Festival, Tirol Festival, Opera Marseille, Liège, Bilbao, Strasbourg and Avignon. From 2002-2006 she was staff director at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
Since 2006, Anke has been a freelance stage director and librettist working on commissions for Opera Bonn, Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin and Komische Oper Berlin. During this time she also directed for Opera Fürth (Germany) and the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv.
Anke has directed Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Berlin International Opera, the world première of Pacini’s Don Giovanni o il convitato di pietra and Rossini’s La gazza ladra for the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Grigori Frid’s chamber opera The diary of Anne Frank for Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, as well as Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Open Air Festival OperOderSpree.
She directs regularly at the Royal College of Music in London and is chairwoman for Berlin International Opera for which she has directed Menotti´s The Medium and Conte´s The Gift of The Magi, both German premières funded by the Berlin senate.
In 2011 she conceived and directed Der Weg des Pilgers for Ars Musica in Aub/ Wu?rzburg and she will direct Shakespeare´s A Midsummernight´s Dream for Theater Thikwa in Berlin.
Anke Rauthmann is also an actress and in 2010 won the first prize with the German-Israeli play Schweigeminute by Hila Golan at the Akko Festival in Israel.
She is a member of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in Germany.
Anke Rauthmann is also an actress and in 2010 won the first prize with the German-Israeli play Schweigeminute by Hila Golan at the Akko Festival in Israel.
She is a member of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in Germany.
James O´Shea
Actor (Boris)
James O'Shea has acted internationally with the dance company Candoco, In praise of folly and The journey, the A. Röthlisberger company, Brain Game and Croi Glan Dance, Postcards and This is. He won the BBC 3 dance show Dancing on wheels and acted in Postcard in The Place prize final in 2006. He has also starred in 2 short films, Locked in directed by Pedro Machado and the multi-award winning Outcasts directed by Ian Clark. James is now training to compete in the 100m breast-stroke in the 2012 Paralympics in London.
Nora Sitges-Sardà
Dancer and Choreographer
Co-director of Contrapunctus Danceport
Nora Sitges-Sardà was born in Barcelona and started her dance studies at the Laura Mas School. Her experience in the professional word started at the Jove Compnyia de Ballet Clássic de Catalunya, directed by Elise Lummis and Peter Smith (1994-1997).
In 1997, she joined the I.T. Dansa del Instituto del Teatro de Barcelona, directed by Catherine Allard, and in 2000 she began her European circuit working with Roberto Galván, Robert Poole and finally at ABC Dance Company, directed by Nicolas Musin, where she worked until 2005.
For the majority of her career she interpreted pieces by important choreagraphers such as W. Forsythe, I. Galili, W. McGregor, J. Godani, N. Duato, J. Kilyan, W. Vandekeybus, and Ohad Naharin
As a choreagrapher, she worked on pieces such as Mai Pen Rai, which won choreography awards from Les Corts and Nou Barris in Barcelona, and from which she realized the video dance Mai Pen Rai in 2002 in 16mm; Reverse, 3/4 and Ain’t No Sunshine, for the official program of the ABC Dance Company; a joint creation with Karl Schreiner over Le sacre du Printemps by Stranvisky for the Krems Dance Festival in Austria. Her last work as a choreographer is the piece CARA B, which premiered at the Mercat de les Flors in 2008, for I.T. Dansa's 10th anniversary.
Since 2005 she codirected her own company, Contrapunctus Danceport, with Claudi Bombardó and worked freelance on diverse international projects. She collaborated with choreographer Emanuele Soavi of the German company, movingtheatre.de, and worked for Karl Schreiner, Liz King, Robert Poole, Jacopo Godani among others.
Since 2008 she has particpated in improvisation workshops for the Forsythe Company and in April 2010 danced THE THE with Jone Sanmartín in the program Chamber Works, also by the same company. She also works as a movement advisor on different operatic projects and collaborated as an assistant with the internationally recognized choregrapher, Jacopo Godani. She is currently restaging Godani´s piece Light Years for the company TheProject, which premieres at the Tel Aviv Opera House on the 30th of November 2010.
Claudi Bombardó Oriol
Choreographer
Co-director of Contrapunctus Danceport
Claudi Bombardó started his dance and music training in Barcelona (Escola NAU, Institut del Teatre, Conservatorio Superior de Música) and finished in Germany (John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, Heinz Bosl Stiftung in Munich).
He was a member of the Wiener Staats Opern Ballett (Viennese State Opera Ballet) for 10 years, combining his carrer as a dancer with choreography. He choreographed for several dance companies, (ABC Dance Company, Interplay Dance Theater, Tanz Graz, Contrapuntus Danceport and the Wiener Staats Opern Ballett). In his repertoire as a choreographer he has more than 30 pieces, which premiered in a number of other European theatres such as in Vienna, Dresden, Thessaloníki, Rome, Venice, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Spoleto, Segovia, and Torrevieja.
Bombardó currently resides in Barcelona where he directs his own company, Contrapuntus Danceport, with Nora Sitges-Sardà. With this company, he premiered the pieces Light, light object, MAI and TOK, Dos, Superfície emocional and Pols. Amongst others, he won the Dansa + a prop award in Barcelona and the special award for D.A.N.C.E. from the XXI Certamen Coreográfico Awards in Madrid. In 2008 he premiered Quaranta Cadires / unplaced, a full-length evening for five dancers and an actor, at the Mercat de les Flors de Barcelona.
His last piece, STILL HOUR – What was, might have been, or will be…- premiered in April 2010 at the Teatre Estruch de Sabadell–Barcelona and was presented in the Danza Venecia Festival at the Teatro Malibran de Venecia and at the movingtheatre meets friends Festival in Cologne, Germany.
Bombardó is currently preparing a dance video with director Àlex Rademakers and dancers Emanuele Soavi, Karl Schreiner and Nora Sitges-Sardà with the support of the Mercat de les Flors, the Film School of Barcelona (ESCAC) and the Estruch Theatre. Parallel to his projects and personal productions, Bombardó offers choreography workshops and performance practice classes at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza del Institut del Teatre de Barcelona and at the Conservatorio de Danza de Valencia and is continually participating in diverse international projects and workshops.
Andrew Walsh
Designer
Studied Scenography at Central St.Martin's and the Slade Schools of Fine Art in London.
Work includes Hamlet, The Trojan Women and Woyzeck with Teatrale Dioniso Palermo / Teatrul Mic Bucharest, Die Schweigsame Frau, Intermezzo, Die Liebe der Danae at Garsington Opera, The Turn of the Screw, Rinaldo at Grange Park Opera, Manon Lescaut at Holland Park Opera , Thomas Bernhard's The Ignoramus and the Maniac The White Bear, London (Both with Matthias Janser), Back to Methuselah with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford on Avon and London, Bernhard's Eve of Retirement at The Gate, London, Early Morning and Blue Light in Delphi at Oval House, London. As an assistant work includes Der Ring des Nibelungen at the New National Theatre, Tokyo.
Giuseppe di Iorio
Lighting Design
Born in Naples, Italy. He moved to London in 1986 to explore his interests in photography, dramatic art and to improve his knowledge in the English language and culture.
He began to work at the Royal Opera House of London in 1989 with several positions in production that led to training in scene and technical direction at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
From the beginning of the 90s, di Iorio has been working as a scene and lighting designer around the world for operatic and theatrical events.
His past collaborations in opera are:
Elisir D’Amore, National Center of Performing Arts, Beijing, China. Die Gezeichneten, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy. Manon Lescaut, Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Italy. Elisir D’Amore, Glyndebourne, Houston Grand Opera, Texas, U.S.A. Zaide, Festival Mozart, La Coruña, Spain. La bohème, Rigoletto, Xerses, Greek National Opera, Greece. Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Teatro Sao Carlo, Lisbon, Portugal. Otello, Festival de Salzburg, Opera di Roma, Italy. Faust, Òpera de Bordeus, Baluarte, Pamplona, Spain. La Traviata, Salome, Malmö Opera, Sweden. Der Zwerg, Faust, La clemenza di Tito,Teatro Regio, Torino, Italy. Anna Bolena , Filarmònica de Verona, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy. Zauberflöte, Bolshoi, Moscow, Russia. Ascanio in Alba, Scala, Milan, Italy.
Xavier Bonet i Casals
Project Coordinator
Born in Lleida, he studied English, French, German, Italian, Arabic, Aranese, and sign language, along with other training courses.
During 2002 and 2003, he completed theatre courses in Lleida and Barcelona. He began working for L’Esponja with animation and comic entertainment for all ages.
Since 2007 he collaborated with the Lleida Puppet Fair (Fira de Titelles) as a stage manager and guide/interpreter for the international jury.
In 2008 he was awarded the Sebastià Serrano Grant from the Official School of Languages in Lleida for completing an outreach project entitled: “The Investigation of a Universal Language.”
In 2009 he worked as a Technical Secretary for the Lleida Boy Scouts and Sant Jordi Guides of Catalonia.
In 2010 he was awarded another grant from the Official School of Languages, Jauma Magre, for the project: The World Remains without Words: Endangered Languages.
In 2011, he began his studies in Translation and Interpretation at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
