Lukas Hemleb - director

Lukas Hemleb was born in Frankfurt. In 1985 he made his debut as Director in Germany and Belgium. He then moved to France where he soon started to be known for his work directing in theaters such as L’Odéon, La Comédie Francaise, MC 93 de Bobigny, Théâtre de Gennevilliers, TGP in St Denis, Théâtre des Abbesses, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, and in Austria at the Burgtheater in Vienna. In these years he also worked on theatre projects in Cameroun and Nigeria.

In Opera his range of repertory includes contemporary works as well as great operas by Verdi and Mozart. He also focused on Baroque repertoire such as Telemaco by Alessandro Scarlatti in Schwetzinger Festspiele (2005) and revived in Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Heilbronn, Ariodante by Haendel at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (2007) and revived in Vienna (2008) and Niobe, regina di Tebe by Agostino Steffani again in Schwetzingen, in Lisbon, London ( Royal Opera House Covent Garden) and Luxembourg.

In 2010 he directed Giulio Cesare by Haendel at Opera Dortmund.

In theatre he staged in 2003 Dindon by Feydeau at the Comédie-Française. This production has been transmitted in the French and German TV (Arte, France 3, Télé 7). Again in 2007 at the Comédie-Française he worked on Misanthrope. This production has been toured all over France and has also been presented at the Festival de Otoño in Madrid. The same year at Théâtre Gérard Philippe à St. Denis he presented his adaptation of La Marquise d’O by Heinrich von Kleist and in 2009 федра (Phèdre) by Marina Tsvetaeva, in Russian, he worked with the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. This performance was produced by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival.

In 2014 he directed Jon Fosse's Je suis le vent (set and costumes by Pietro Babina) presented and produced by Maison de la Culture d'Amiens and Emilia Romagna Teatri in Modena and Bologna.

Parallel to his European work he explored the Chinese and Taiwanese traditional theatre collaborating with artists of traditional music Nanguan. In 2012 after spending 7 months in Japan and getting his graduation at the Villa Médicis-hors-les-murs at the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, he came back to Europe to direct Harper Regan (by Simon Stephens), Z - Je me crois à l’enfer donc j’y suis (by Rimbaud), Les Arrangements (Pauline Sales). All these productions were produced and toured in French theatres.

In 2014 Gerard Mortier invited him to direct Lohengrin at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in the beginning of 2015 he directed Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

2016 started with a new and very succesful production in collaboration with video maker Luca Scarzella for Tosca at Theater Kiel. Amongst his future plans it is worth mentioning Les Huguenots at Theater Kiel.