We are delighted to welcome stage director Haitham Assem Tantawy to our management roster.
Egyptian-German opera and music-theatre director Haitham Assem Tantawy is known for visually powerful, physically intense, and ritual-inspired productions that explore opera as a transformative space where sound, body, and image merge into emotionally charged theatrical experiences. He gained international recognition with his acclaimed production of The Lighthouse (Der Leuchtturm) by Peter Maxwell Davies at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, praised by critics as a “breathtaking Gesamtkunstwerk” and earning him a nomination for Director of the Year in the Opernwelt Critics’ Poll 2024/25.
Since the 2022/23 season, Tantawy has been working at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg as a staff and assistant director, collaborating with leading international opera directors on major productions. His Wagner-inspired chamber opera Wider das Verlöschen, supported by the Richard Wagner Association Karlsruhe and the Wagner Society of Santiago de Chile, is currently featured on the RIWA 26 platform marking the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival.
Earlier highlights include the world premiere of Das Ebenbild & Der alte Traum (Spieltriebe Festival, Stadttheater Osnabrück), which later became a central case study in Anna D. Rüdel’s Staging Interreligious Differences (2023), as well as his work as movement director for Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Nederlandse Reisopera. He is also the founder and artistic director of SINAI Orchestral Theatre in Berlin, creating publicly funded music-theatre projects at the intersection of ritual, movement, and sound.
We look forward to supporting Haitham Assem Tantawy’s artistic path and wish him every success as he continues to shape bold and distinctive music-theatre experiences.
Stage Director
