Walter Sutcliffe, Stage Director

Walter Sutcliffe will take up his position as the new artistic director of the Halle Opera from summer 2021 on. From 2017-2020 he was Artistic Director and CEO of the Northern Ireland Opera. 

Walter Sutcliffe has directed critically acclaimed productions in both theatre and opera, working in the UK, USA, Germany, Austria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, i.a. His opera works include Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave (Oper Frankfurt, nominated for Best Set, Best Costume, Best Male Performer Opernwelt 2010) and Albert Herring (Landestheater Linz), Così fan Tutte (Estonian National Opera, winner Best Design, Best Female Performer Estonian Theatre Awards 2009), Tippett’s The Knot Garden (Klangbogen Festival, Vienna), and Janacek’s Sarka (Dicapo Opera New York). Theatre productions include Strindberg’s The Great Highway (Gate Theatre, London), Fry’s The Lady’s not for Burning (Finborough Theatre, London) and The Soldier’s Tale (BAC, London). In addition he will take up his position as the new artistic director of the Halle Opera from summer 2021 on.

In the last seasons Sutcliffe directed Reimann’s Gespenstersonate (Frankfurt), Così fan tutte and Carmen (Tallinn), a new production of Werther and Kiss me Kate for the Magdeburg Opera, Don Giovanni and Orpheus in der Unterwelt (Osnabrück), Luisa Miller and La Traviata (Braunschweig), Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre in Chemnitz, Owen Wingrave,  The Turn of the Screw und Tiefland (Toulouse), Orontea (Frankfurt), Rigoletto (Santiago, Chile and Teatro Il Colon Buenos Aires),  Manon Lescaut (Theater Osnabrück), Die Brüder Löwenherz (Dresden),  Zar und Zimmermann (Bremerhaven), Agrippina (Grange Festival), Rodrigo (Göttingen) and Faust (Karlsruhe).

In addition he has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and  San Francisco Opera (both Il Trovatore). He has also directed productions for students of London’s Royal College of Music and the Rose Bruford College.

Sutcliffe has translated plays and libretti from both French and German into English. He has received scholarships from the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Italian Cultural Institute. He was born in London in 1976 and studied at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University.

2021/22

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