Christof Loy


Christof Loy is a German stage director especially for opera, whose work received several awards. A freelance director, he has staged operas from Baroque to premieres of new works at major European opera houses and festivals. He is known for directing works by Mozart.

Career

Born in Essen, the son of architect and a translator, Loy began studies of opera directing at the Folkwangschule with Dieter Bülter-Marell at the age of 14. He received the Folkwang-Preis award for his first staged work, Pimpinone. He studied in Essen until 1982 and continued his studies at the Munich University, including science of the theatre, art history, and Italian studies. In 1984, Loy began work as an assistant at the Musiktheater im Revier, where he collaborated with and, among others. In 1986, he moved to the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, and since 1990 he has worked as a freelance director.
He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in 2002 with Ariadne auf Naxos, conducted by Antonio Pappano who was then the new music director. He also staged there Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Alban Berg's Lulu and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. He directed Mussorgski's Khovanshchina at the Dutch National Opera, Handel's Alcina and Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Opernhaus Zürich, Verdi's Macbeth at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Britten's Peter Grimes at the Theater an der Wien, Janáček's Jenůfa at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss at the Royal Swedish Opera, Mozart's Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni, and Arabella by Richard Strauss at the Oper Frankfurt, his Daphne at the Theater Basel, and Handel's Theodora for the Salzburg Festival. In 2017, he directed the premiere of Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini's Edward II. at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Among other awards, his staging of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Oper Frankfurt earned him the prize Der Faust in the category direction in music theatre in 2008.

Opera productions

  • Claudio Monteverdi
  • * L'Orfeo
  • * Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
  • * L'incoronazione di Poppea
  • G. F. Handel
  • * Alcina
  • * Saul
  • * Giulio Cesare
  • * Theodora.
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck
  • * Iphigénie en Aulide
  • Joseph Haydn
  • * Armida
  • W. A. Mozart
  • * La finta semplice
  • * La finta giardiniera
  • * Lucio Silla
  • * Die Entführung aus dem Serail
  • * Le nozze di Figaro
  • * Don Giovanni
  • * Così fan tutte
  • * Die Zauberflöte
  • * La clemenza di Tito
  • Vincenzo Bellini
  • * I Capuleti e i Montecchi
  • * La straniera
  • Gioachino Rossini
  • * Il turco in Italia
  • * L'italiana in Algeri
  • * La donna del lago
  • Gaetano Donizetti
  • * Lucia di Lammermoor
  • * Roberto Devereux
  • * Lucrezia Borgia
  • Hector Berlioz
  • * La damnation de Faust
  • * Les Troyens
  • Richard Wagner
  • * Tannhäuser
  • * Tristan und Isolde
  • * Parsifal
  • Engelbert Humperdinck
  • * Königskinder
  • Giuseppe Verdi
  • * Macbeth
  • * Les vêpres siciliennes
  • * Don Carlos
  • * Falstaff
  • Jacques Offenbach
  • * La belle Hélène
  • * Les contes d'Hoffmann
  • Charles Gounod
  • * Faust
  • Peter Tchaikovky
  • * Eugen Onegin
  • Modest Mussorgski
  • * Khovanshchina
  • Jules Massenet
  • * Werther
  • * Manon
  • Giacomo Puccini
  • * La bohème
  • * La fanciulla del West
  • Pietro Mascagni / Ruggero Leoncavallo
  • * Cavalleria rusticana und Pagliacci
  • Leoš Janáček
  • * Její pastorkyňa
  • Richard Strauss
  • * Der Rosenkavalier
  • * Ariadne auf Naxos
  • * Arabella
  • * Die Frau ohne Schatten
  • * Intermezzo
  • * Daphne
  • Benjamin Britten
  • * Peter Grimes
  • Alban Berg
  • * Lulu
  • Hans Werner Henze
  • * Der Prinz von Homburg
  • * Die Bassariden
  • Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini
  • * Der Sandmann
  • * ''Edward II.''

    Awards

  • 1982: Folkwang-Preis
  • 2001: Duisburger Musikpreis
  • 2003: Nomination Laurence Olivier Award
  • 2003: Director of the Year by Opernwelt
  • 2004: Director of the Year
  • 2008: Director of the Year
  • 2008: Der Faust for Così fan tutte at the Oper Frankfurt
  • 2010: Laurence Olivier Award for Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Opera House
  • 2017: International Opera Awards as best opera director
  • 2021: Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis, best direction for Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival
  • 2024: International Opera Awards as best opera director