Guy Joosten

Guy Joosten started his career as a stage director and the artistic head of the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie theatre collective. He also directed plays at the NTG, the KVS and the Brussels Kamertoneel, as well as for various companies in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen).

At the age of 28 he made his debut at the Burgtheater in Vienna and a year later he became the head director at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg.

In 1989 he was awarded the Theatre Festival Prize in Rotterdam for his directing of Lars Noren’s play Nachtwake and received the Belgian Thalia Prize for his work with the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie.

In 1999 the Flemish authorities honoured him with the title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders for his opera directing. In 2010 he received the Prix de L’Europe Francophone/grand prix de la critique in Paris.

He received the Premio Franco Abbiati /Melior Regista for his production of Elektra in Bologna (2015).

In 1991 he directed his first opera at the Flanders Opera (Antwerp/Ghent). He has also directed works in the opera houses of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bern, Bologna, Brussels, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Genève, Göteborg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Leipzig, Lisbon, London (English National Opera), Liège, Madrid, Maribor, Marseille, Monte Carlo, Montpellier, Oviedo, Sankt Gallen, Rouen, Saint-Étienne, Sofia, Vienna (Volksoper & Theater an der Wien) and Zürich. In 2005 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette.

Guy Joosten started to direct in Asia in 2018 with productions in Seoul (Korean National Opera) and Tokyo (Japanese National Opera-Nikikei).

In addition to his work as director he was also professor at the University of Hamburg and lecturer at university colleges in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Saarbrücken, Maastricht and Barcelona. He also teaches the opera course at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp. He is the founder of the International Opera Academy in Ghent where he was general manager until October 2023.

He gives regular masterclasses, e.g., in Antwerp, Sofia and Tel Aviv, Leipzig, Valencia & Madrid.