Carmen C. Kruse is an Austrian German opera stage director, working on repertoire and new opera. Her works are shaped by an in-depth, psychological exploration of broad societal themes and their effects on individuals. Fed by first-hand accounts and community input, she creates immersive experiences, changes the relationship between orchestra and dramatic action, and presents worlds that inspire, empower, and connect.

 

Kruse recently directed the world premieres of Carolyn Amann, Manuel Zwerger and her new opera Great Open Eyes at Theater Münster and Mischa Tangian's Morgen sehe ich mich at Kunst Haus Wien, Amy Crankshaw's Bruissements du Cosmos at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Victoria Bond's Clara at the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden and Thierry Tidrow's micro-opera A Safe and Special Place at Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt. In also 2022, she premiered her and Manuel Zwerger's music theater VR-BANIA at Musiktheatertage Wien, which toured to Zurich and Innsbruck. Carmen's 2023/24 Season features her debut with the Bregenzer Festspiele and Neue Oper Wien, Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre, Japan, as well as the Centro Experimental del Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, a double-bill at Landesbühne Radebeul and a world premiere at Volksoper Wien.  As well as the staging of Great Open Eyes with Civic Opera Creations in Vienna.

 

Carmen C. Kruse won the CROSS Award in Italy (5t edition, October 2019), as well as the directing competition of the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, the Berliner Philharmoniker, Theater Baden-Baden, and the Deutsche Bank Stiftung (April 2018), and was a finalist of the new music theater competition OPER.A 20.21 of the Fondazione Haydn Stiftung (2019) and the NOperas! Competition (2021). She is an Alumna a.o. of the Akademie Musiktheater heute (Directing-Scholarship, 2017-19), the Lincoln Center Theaters Directors Lab (2018), the BMP: Producer Academy in New York (2020), and the Women Opera Makers Workshop with Katie Mitchell at L`Académie du Festival d'Aix (2020).

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Date of publication: June 2023