Director, set, costume and light designer, Denis Krief lives in Rome and is fluent in French, Italian, Russian, English and German.

He studied music in Paris and trained as a director in Italy, keeping, at the same time, in close contact with the German and Russian schools of theatre.

Musician and man of the theatre, his interests encompass a very wide range of repertoire
from classical to contemporary opera; he has indeed directed works such as Mozart’s
Clemenza di Tito, Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer and Battistelli’s Prova d’orchestra.

In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Premio Abbiati by the Italian critics for his productions of Turandot (Puccini and Busoni), Carmen and Lucia di Lammermoor.

An early highlight of his career was a new production of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Since then, he has regularly worked in Italy, France, Russia, Japan, Austria and Germany, where he directed Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Opera in Karlsruhe.

In Italy, he worked at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera), in Cagliari (Lucia di Lammermoor, Aida, Barbiere di Siviglia and, for the first time in Italy, Richard Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena). In Palermo he staged the first Italian production of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.

Amongst his most important productions in the past few years are: the first European staging of Tan Dun`s opera The First Emperor in Saarbrücken, Wagner ‘s Ring cycle in Karlsruhe, and the first Italian production of Tan Dun’s Water Passion in Rimini.

In 2007 he opened the Arena di Verona season with a new production of Nabucco.

He has been invited several times to La Fenice in Venice for new productions of: Parsifal,Turandot and Maria Stuarda. He produced Lucia di Lammermoor in Parma and Napoli, Pique Dame and Luisa Miller in Torino. In 2010 he staged a widely acclaimed production of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten at the New National Theater inTokyo

>> DVD published:

- I Capuletti e i Montecchi di V. Bellini (Martina Franca Festival/ Patrizia Cioffi)

- Parsifal di R.Wagner (Venezia Teatro alla Fenice/Matthias Hoelle /Wolfgang Schoene/Doris Soffel)

- Nabucco di G.Verdi (Arena di Verona/ Leo Nucci/Maria Guleghina)(DECCA)

- Luisa Miller di G.Verdi(festival Verdi Parma/Leo Nucci/MarcelloAlvarez/Fiorenza Cedolins)(RAI)

Coming soon:
- Maria Stuarda di G.Donizzetti (Venezia Teatro alla Fenice/Fiorenza Cedolins/Sonia Ganassi)
(UNITEL)