Biography

Bruno Berger-Gorski, a German director with Polish roots, lives in Vienna and graduated from the University of Vienna with a Master’s degree in Theatre, Film and Media Studies. Berger-Gorski’s special interests are contemporary music as well as discoveries and rediscoveries of composers who were labelled “degenerate” and were unjustly forgotten.

He has staged more than 100 works of music theatre worldwide at renowned opera houses such as the Hamburg State Opera, the Bonn Opera, Aachen, Trier and Magdeburg, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, at the Liceu in Barcelona, in Lucca and Bergamo, at the TNL in Luxembourg, in Sao Paulo, at the Amazonas Festival in Manaus/Brazil, at the Teresa Carreno in Caracas, in Montevideo, at the National Theatre and the Prague State Opera, at the Florida Grand Opera in Miami, in Austin/Texas, in Mumbai, at the National Theatre in Athens and Thessaloniki, in Ashkelon/Israel, at the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, at the State Opera in Kazan, several times at the Opera Zuid in Maastricht and in Bergen/Norway, in Budapest, in Wroclaw and Katowice, in Oviedo, in Tenerife and at the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki as well as in Switzerland in Lucerne and most recently in Biel-Bienne two chamber operas by Salvatore Sciarrino and Peter Eötvös, which were invited to Bolzano for the OPERA 21 festival.

Berger-Gorski has staged several productions in Salzburg and at the Vienna Chamber Opera, the Jugendstiltheater, Schönbrunn and the Konzerthaus, including many first and world premieres, among others, Adriana Hölszky, Udo Zimmermann, G. Klebe, K. Vaage, M. Trojahn, T. Johnson, Ella Milch-Sheriff, Peter Eötvös, C.Kerger, Salvatore Sciarrino and Josef Tal. His productions of the Austrian premiere of Kurt Weill’s “Der Silbersee” in Vienna and in 2015 “Baruch’s Silence” in Fürth by the Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff have received national attention in the press and among experts.

In Esch (Luxembourg) and Bonn, Berger-Gorski staged the contemporary chamber operas “Garten” by Josef Tal and Ella Milch-Sheriff’s “Conversation with a Stone” with conductor Marino Formenti. In 2017 Berger-Gorski was invited by the Dallas Opera (USA) for a new production of “Samson et Dalila” with Emmanuel Villaume and staged in Salzburg the scenic world premiere of the chamber opera “Homage to Else Lasker- Schüler” by Josef Tal at the Museum der Moderne and the Synagogue Salzburg with Marko Feingold, which was invited to the Jaffa Festival in Tel Aviv and the Jewish Festival in Krakow.

In 2019 Berger-Gorski staged the Israeli debut of the chamber opera “The Golden Dragon” by Peter Eötvös at the Gesher Theatre in Tel Aviv and was invited with this production to the Bartok-Plusz Festival in Miskolc as the Hungarian premiere. He also staged the rarely performed works “Pepito”, “Ehemann vor der Türe” and “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the Volksbühne Köln in Deagu (South Korea) for the Offenbach Year. For the 200th anniversary of Beethoven, Berger-Gorski was invited to the Košice State Theatre for an inaugural production of “Fidelio”.

In 2020, during the Corona pandemic, he produced and directed the contemporary Roma chamber operas “Rromano Kidipe” by Adrian Gaspar and “Wier schemen unz” by Koloman Polak about Roma contemporary witnesses which survived the Holocaust. Both chamber operas were broadcast worldwide as part of the IHRA by the Berlin Foreign Office. In 2021 Berger-Gorski staged “Rromano Kidipe” in Vienna and “La Rondine” for Bytom (Poland) in co-operation with the Staatstheater Meiningen.

2022 Berger-Gorski was invited to direct “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Deagu/Korea and also directed “Mahagonny Songspiel”/Weill for Vienna, the jewish festival in Krakow and in Tel Aviv. In May 2023 Bruno Berger-Gorski directed a new “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Jessica Pratt and Xabier Anduaga at the Opera Las Palmas. In september 2023 Berger-Gorski is invited by the Opera-Festival in Belem /Brasil to direct “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Brasilian artists and Scenes of Kurt Weill in the Frame of a Lecture about jewish Composers supported by the austrian Embassador Mr. Stefan Scholz. In autumn 2023 Berger-Gorski will direct “Lady Magenesia” from Weinberg at the Chamberopera Warzawa and for 2024 he is invited back to Las Palmas for “Roberto Devereux” /Donizetti. 2025 he will direct an Opera from Krenek as a rediscovery and Austrian scenic premiere in Vienna.