Winner of the Audience Prize in Salzburg for Best Production of the 2012/2013 season at the Landestheater, Jacopo Spirei’s opera engagements as a director include, among others: Falstaff and Un Ballo in Maschera at the Festival Verdi in Parma and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Don Giovanni at the San Francisco Opera; Carmen at the Macerata Opera Festival; Ermione at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; L’Elisir d’Amore and Falstaff at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe; Lucie de Lammermoor at the Donizetti Festival; Rinaldo on the Opera Lombardia circuit; Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte, Der Pilger von Mekka, Brokeback Mountain, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Salzburg Landestheater; Aida in Dortmund; La Cambiale di Matrimonio at the Theater an der Wien; Nabucco in Gothenburg; La Donna del Lago at the Buxton Festival; Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante at the Purtimiro Baroque Festival in Lugo di Romagna; The Bear, Maderna's Satyricon, and Il Matrimonio Segreto at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen; La Cenerentola at the Festival Internacional de Música in Cartagena; Pagliacci at the Wexford Festival Opera; a double-bill of Bastien und Bastienne and Paisiello’s La Serva Padrona at the Lugo Opera Festival and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna; L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Hänsel und Gretel, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Fledermaus at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts; Hamlet at the Teatro Regio in Turin; and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Jacopo Spirei is Professor of Opera at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KhiO), Norway.

He has collaborated extensively with the renowned Graham Vick as associate and revival director in major productions worldwide, including at: Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Birmingham Opera Company (including the world premiere of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht), Houston Grand Opera, Bregenz Festival, New National Theatre Tokyo, and Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon for Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Jacopo Spirei studied Art, Music and Dramatic Arts in Bologna, and filmmaking in New York at the New York Film Academy. He is deeply involved in training young, emerging talents in opera, and has long-standing collaborations with the Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, among others.

Between 2006 and 2011, he was Artistic Director and founder of www.spurio.com, an experimental project combining opera, filmmaking, video art, and live performance. The initiative culminated in the production of a feature film based on the myth of Orpheus, with live music composed by Davide Fensi.

Among the engagements of the 2025-26 season are: the double-bill of L’heure Espagnole and The Bear at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow; Falstaff at the Teatro Regio in Parma; and Tosca at the Teatro Politeama in Prato.

August 2025