Daniel Kramer (born January 15, 1977) is an American-born theatre, opera and dance director. He was appointed artistic director of the English National Opera in April 2016.
Kramer was born on a sheep farm in Wadsworth, Ohio, US. He graduated salutatorian from Wadsworth High School. At Northwestern University, he earned a BGS in Interdisciplinary Arts: Theatre, Performance Studies and Dance with a Music Theatre Certificate, graduating Summa cum laude . He then pursued three years of practical graduate studies at the Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique (the technique of Étienne Decroux) in London; commedia dell'arte with Maestro Antonia Fava in Italy; and finally at London's Circus Space, now the National Centre for Circus Arts.
Kramer has had a prolific directing career with a variety of stage and opera companies. His work is known for its striking visuals and emotional intensity.[ citation needed ] He began his professional career with Franz Xaver Kroetz's Through the Leaves, starring Ann Mitchell and Simon Callow, at Southwark Playhouse: the production was transferred to the West End. He next reimagined Büchner's Woyzeck and the anti-war musical Hair for the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. Both shows garnered his first award nominations.
Between 2004 and 2006 he was Associate Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre; between 2005 and 2006 he was Creative Associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company; between 2008 and 2012 he was an Associate at the Young Vic. During this time, he was noted as a "directing talent worth reckoning with". [1] His commercial debut was Martin Sherman's Bent , starring Alan Cumming and newcomer Chris New, followed by the UK's first national revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America for Headlong Theatre.
In 2008 Kramer directed his first opera, Harrison Birtwistle's Punch & Judy for the English National Opera at the Young Vic which subsequently played the Grand Théâtre de Genève. His popular but controversial Bluebeard's Castle for the English National Opera was conducted by Valery Gergiev for the Mariinsky Theatre and Bolshoi Theatre. Kramer and Gergiev subsequently collaborated on Pelleas and Melisande .
His first dance collaboration, Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition, played at the Young Vic and Sadlers Wells. His radical rethink of Carmen – set in Seville, Ohio – played at Opera North and Vlaamse Opera. Kramer created the award-winning production of King Kong in Melbourne, Australia starring Esther Hannaford. [2] His Tristan and Isolde for the ENO, designed by Anish Kapoor, premiered during the 2015/2016 opera season. His Magic Flute at the Grand Théâtre de Genève was cancelled by the director of the Grand Théâtre owing to the artistic angle taken by Kramer, who wanted to focus on the violence present in the opera, whereas the director wanted a more festive and traditional approach. [3]
He was appointed artistic director of the English National Opera in April 2016. [4]
Kramer has also been a guest artist and professor at Harvard University, Brown University, New York University, Northwestern University in Illinois and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. [5]
Kramer was the winner of the South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for the ENO at the Young Vic season 2008, and was nominated for the Golden Mask award for Best Director for Bluebeard , at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. [6]
Kramer has been in relationships with the actor Simon Callow and with fashion designer Jurgen Oeltjenbruns.
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Simon Phillip Hugh Callow is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999.
English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English.
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg.
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, organised by the composer himself, very closely follows certain passages in Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel in verse, retaining much of his poetry. Tchaikovsky's friend Konstantin Shilovsky contributed M. Triquet's verses in Act 2, Scene 1, while Tchaikovsky himself arranged the text for Lensky's arioso in Act 1, Scene 1, and almost all of Prince Gremin's aria in Act 3, Scene 1.
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He was formerly chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Munich Philharmonic.
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic opera house in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th-century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanov's retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director.
Lilian Mary Baylis CH was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera (ENO); a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre; and a ballet company, which eventually became The Royal Ballet.
The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth.
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on a combination of two Russian legends: those of Saint Fevroniya of Murom and of the city of Kitezh, which became invisible when attacked by the Tatars. The opera was completed in 1905, and the premiere performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, on February 7, 1907, the last in Rimsky-Korsakov's lifetime.
Matthew Warchus is an English theatre director, filmmaker and dramaturg. He has been the Artistic Director of London's The Old Vic since September 2015.
Paul Daniel is an English conductor.
Adrian Keith Noble is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003.
Carrie Cracknell is a British theatre director. She was artistic director of the Gate Theatre, London from 2007 to 2012. She was associate director at both the Young Vic (2012–2013) and the Royal Court (2013–2014).
Sally Burgess FRCM is a South African-born British operatic lyric mezzo-soprano, opera director, and educator. She has been a Fellow and Professor of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music since 2004, as well as teaching stagecraft. She has also taught at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.
Dmitri Tcherniakov is a Russian theatre director, and winner of numerous national Golden Mask theatre awards, who works with many European opera houses.
Motley Theatre Design Course is a one-year independent theatre design course in London. It was founded at Sadler's Wells Opera in 1966.
Tom Morris OBE is an English theatre director, writer and producer. He was the Artistic Director at BAC from 1995 to 2004, he has been Associate Director at the National Theatre since 2004 and Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic since 2009.
Benedict Andrews is an Australian theatre and film director, based in Reykjavík. Born in Adelaide in 1972, he was educated at Flinders University Drama Centre. His first feature film Una was released in 2016.
John Edward Berry is a British-born musician and arts administrator.
Francesco Ventriglia is an Italian ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director. In 2010 he was appointed as Europe's youngest artistic director by the Florence Opera House at the age of 32, where he held the role as artistic director and principal choreographer for Maggio Danza until 2013. In 2014, he was named the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet until June 2017, and from January 2018, as adjunct artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, Ballet Nacional Sodre alongside Igor Yebra. Ventriglia is also a choreographer of classical and contemporary ballet, having works performed internationally by companies such as the La Scala Ballet, Arena di Verona, Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Ballet, Grande Theatre du Geneve, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ballet Nacional Sodre and at the Venice Biannale.
