Kirill Serebrennikov
Salzburg Opera Festival - Rheingold
“ Overall, this creates a transcultural Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) that exhibits astonishing homogeneity and includes numerous elements that are unusual for the ‘Ring’ series. ”
Elsa Deinhammer, The Opernmagazin (29.03.2026)
"It's perfectly timed, imaginative, and free of clichés."
Bernhard Neuhoff, BR-Klassik (March 28, 2026)
Dutch National Opera - Boris Godunov
“ Russian-Ukrainian director Kirill Serebrennikov convincingly brings Boris Godunov into the present day. ... A multifaceted spectacle that pulls out all the stops. ”
Theaterkrant, Thea Derks (June 2025)
Season 26/27 and Highlights
KIRILL & FRIENDS BERLIN FESTIVAL
Sept 4 - 13
OSTERFESTSPIELE SALZBURG
BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER WITH KIRILL PETRENKO
Wagner - Walküre
PREMIERE March 20
Biography
Kirill Serebrennikov is one of the world’s most sought-after directors, working across opera, theatre, film, and ballet.
Following the successful launch of the new Ring cycle at the Salzburg Easter Festival with Das Rheingold, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, Serebrennikov continues the cycle in the 2026/27 season with Wagner’s Die Walküre. He also launches the KIRILL & FRIENDS BERLIN FESTIVAL, whose inaugural edition takes place from 4 to 13 September 2026. The artist collective KIRILL & FRIENDS, which he founded in 2023, unites artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. The festival brings the collective’s work together in Berlin for the first time, providing a platform for international artistic exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Serebrennikov is also one of the most influential European filmmakers of our time. His films are regularly screened and honoured at major international festivals. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele premiered at Cannes in 2025 and received seven nominations for the 2026 German Film Awards.
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Born in Rostov-on-Don, Serebrennikov began working as a self-taught theatre, opera, and film director and costume designer while studying physics. He gained international attention early in his career with productions including Salome at Stuttgart Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Komische Oper Berlin, and the Orff project Mysterion with Teodor Currentzis.
Recent highlights include his acclaimed production of the ballet Nureyev at the Berlin State Ballet, for which he served as director, librettist, and set designer. In the 2024/25 season, he directed Don Carlo at the Vienna State Opera, Schnittke’s Leben mit einem Idioten at the Zurich Opera House, Don Giovanni at the Komische Oper Berlin, and Boris Godunov at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. He concluded the season with his staging of Vladimir Sorokin’s The Blizzard at the Salzburg Festival.
His other acclaimed opera productions include Falstaff at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Le Coq d’or at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and American Lulu at the Vienna Festival. Further credits include Così fan tutte in Zurich, Nabucco in Hamburg, Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera, The Nose at the Bavarian State Opera, Der Freischütz in Amsterdam, and the Mozart–Da Ponte cycle at the Komische Oper Berlin.
Serebrennikov’s theatre work encompasses Russian classics alongside works by Shakespeare, Brecht, and Martin McDonagh. His production of Vasily Sigarev’s Plastilin was filmed by ARTE and broadcast internationally.
He founded the Studio Seven platform and, from 2012 to 2021, served as artistic director of Moscow’s legendary Gogol Center, a cross-genre theatre laboratory. His productions include Dead Souls, the musical Spring Awakening (music by Duncan Sheik), and Machine Müller (in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut). In 2019, he received the Golden Mask, Russia’s highest theatre award, for his work on the ballet Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theatre and on Little Tragedies, based on Pushkin’s work.
2026/27
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