Sergio Morabito

© Wiener Staatsoper / Michael Pöhn

Sergio Morabito, born in Frankfurt am Main, studied Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, graduating with a diploma. During his studies, he completed directing and dramaturgy internships at the Frankfurt Opera, including working on the "Frankfurter Ring" directed by Ruth Berghaus. On the invitation of Klaus Zehelein, he was a dramaturg and director at the Stuttgart State Opera from 1993 to 2018, and from 2011, he also served as Chief Dramaturg.

In 1993, he began his collaboration with director Jossi Wieler, who came from a background in theatre. Together, and often in collaboration with set and costume designer Anna Viebrock, they directed numerous productions in Stuttgart since 1994, including L’italiana in Algeri, Alcina, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Siegfried, Don Carlos, Norma, Moses und Aron, Una cosa rara, and Katja Kabanova. Their production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Salzburg Festival in 2001 was voted "Production of the Year" in the critics' poll of the magazine Opernwelt. Their Doktor Faust (Busoni), staged in San Francisco and Stuttgart, received the same award in 2005, their Alceste (Gluck) in 2006, and their Sonnambula in 2012. Their Alcina was invited to the Budapest Spring Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival, while their Norma was taken up by the Novaya Opera Moscow in 2005, the Teatro Massimo Palermo in 2014, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2017. Their production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande for the Hannover State Opera was performed at the Wiener Festwochen and the Edinburgh International Festival. At the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, they staged Mozart's Lucio Silla and a Mozart/Da Ponte cycle.

For the Salzburg Festival in 2008, they produced Dvořák's Rusalka, a production that was also performed in 2012 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Their 2008 production of La Juive(Halévy) in Stuttgart was later taken up by the Semperoper in Dresden, and their Ballo in maschera at the Berlin State Opera that same year was later staged by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. Their collaboration with set designer Bert Neumann began with La Juive, and together they created five more productions until Neumann's death in 2015. Wieler and Morabito were named "Director Team of the Year" in 2002 and 2012. In 2006, they won the German Theatre Prize "Der Faust" in the category of "Best Opera Direction" for their production of Doktor Faust, and in 2012, they won the award a second time for the Schönberg-Janáček double bill Die glückliche Hand – Osud.

Morabito has published numerous contributions in professional journals, anthologies, and program booklets. He has taught at universities in Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Stuttgart, led workshops at the Moscow Territory Festival, and is a member of the German Academy of Performing Arts. In 2011, he co-published the "image-reading book" OPER with Wieler and the photographer A. T. Schaefer, and in the fall of 2019, his book Opernarbeit. Texte aus 25 Jahren ("Opera Work: Texts from 25 Years") was published. From 2011 to 2018, he served as Chief Dramaturg on the management team of the Stuttgart Opera, which was named "Opera House of the Year" in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed an honorary member of the Stuttgart State Theaters.

Other premieres with Wieler include L’Écume des jours by Edison Denisov (winner of the "International Diaghilev Award 2013"), the world premieres of Mark Andre's wunderzaichen and Toshio Hosokawa's Erdbeben. Träume, Wagner's Tristan, Niccolò Jommelli's Berenike (Il Vologeso) (awarded "Rediscovery of the Year 2014"), Verdi's Rigoletto, Beethoven's Fidelio, Bellini's Puritani, Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, Handel's Ariodante, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, and Weber's Freischütz.

Since the 2020/21 season, Sergio Morabito has served as Chief Dramaturg of the Vienna State Opera.

Performances with Sergio Morabito

Saison 2024-25
Thu
01 May
17:30—22:00
Richard Wagner
Oper Main Stage

with Günther Groissböck, Klaus Florian Vogt, Camilla Nylund, Jordan Shanahan, Anja Kampe, Attila Mokus, Conductor: Christian Thielemann

Lohengrin

Cast on Thursday 1. May 2025

König Heinrich

Lohengrin

Klaus Florian Vogt * *instead of David Butt Philip

Elsa von Brabant

Heerrufer

Musikalische Leitung

Inszenierung

Bühne & Kostüme

Anna Viebrock

Licht

Sebastian Alphons

Ko-Bühnenbildner

Torsten Köpf
U27 Ö1 BT-Card
Sun
04 May
17:30—22:00
Richard Wagner
Oper Main Stage

with Günther Groissböck, Klaus Florian Vogt, Camilla Nylund, Jordan Shanahan, Anja Kampe, Attila Mokus, Conductor: Christian Thielemann

Lohengrin

Cast on Sunday 4. May 2025

König Heinrich

Lohengrin

Klaus Florian Vogt * *instead of David Butt Philip

Elsa von Brabant

Heerrufer

Vier Edeldamen

Irene Hofmann

Kaya Maria Last

Anna Lach

Musikalische Leitung

Inszenierung

Bühne & Kostüme

Anna Viebrock

Licht

Sebastian Alphons

Ko-Bühnenbildner

Torsten Köpf
Saison 2025-26
Thu
02 Apr
Richard Wagner
Oper Main Stage

with Gerald Finley, Franz-Josef Selig, Klaus Florian Vogt, Werner Van Mechelen, Jennifer Holloway, Conductor: Axel Kober

Parsifal

Cast on Thursday 2. April 2026

Titurel

Matheus França

Klingsor

Werner Van Mechelen

Musikalische Leitung

Inszenierung, Bühne & Kostüme

Licht

Franck Evin

Ko-Regie

Evgeny Kulagin

Mitarbeit Bühne

Olga Pavluk

Mitarbeit Kostüm

Tatiana Dolmatovskaya

Video & Foto Designer

Aleksei Fokin

Yurii Karih

Kampfmeister

Ran Arthur Braun

Dramaturgie

Sun
05 Apr
Richard Wagner
Oper Main Stage

with Gerald Finley, Franz-Josef Selig, Klaus Florian Vogt, Werner Van Mechelen, Jennifer Holloway, Conductor: Axel Kober

Parsifal

Cast on Sunday 5. April 2026

Titurel

Matheus França

Klingsor

Werner Van Mechelen

Musikalische Leitung

Inszenierung, Bühne & Kostüme

Licht

Franck Evin

Ko-Regie

Evgeny Kulagin

Mitarbeit Bühne

Olga Pavluk

Mitarbeit Kostüm

Tatiana Dolmatovskaya

Video & Foto Designer

Aleksei Fokin

Yurii Karih

Kampfmeister

Ran Arthur Braun

Dramaturgie

U27
Wed
08 Apr
Richard Wagner
Oper Main Stage

with Gerald Finley, Franz-Josef Selig, Klaus Florian Vogt, Werner Van Mechelen, Jennifer Holloway, Conductor: Axel Kober

Parsifal

Cast on Wednesday 8. April 2026

Titurel

Matheus França

Klingsor

Werner Van Mechelen

Musikalische Leitung

Inszenierung, Bühne & Kostüme

Licht

Franck Evin

Ko-Regie

Evgeny Kulagin

Mitarbeit Bühne

Olga Pavluk

Mitarbeit Kostüm

Tatiana Dolmatovskaya

Video & Foto Designer

Aleksei Fokin

Yurii Karih

Kampfmeister

Ran Arthur Braun

Dramaturgie

Abo 11

Ticket information

Saison 2024/2025

Einen Wochentag und Lieblingsplätze wählen und fünf Vorstellungen in einer Saison genießen.

In diesem Abo sind folgende Vorstellungen enthalten:

18. Dezember 2024: RIGOLETTO
12. Februar 2025: TOSCA
05. März 2025: WERTHER
07. Mai 2025: BALLETT: PATHÉTIQUE
04. Juni 2025: TANNHÄUSER