“Tannhäuser”, staged by the shooting star of the opera world

He has lived for the stage for a quarter of a century, now he is on the verge of a really big career, Graz will be one of his stops: Evgeny Titov, the actor and director born in Kazakhstan 43 years ago, is staging the opera’s season opening. Intendant Ulrich Lenz brought him to Graz, we still know from Titov’s first ever second opera direction in 2021 at the Komische Oper in Berlin. It was no coincidence that he directed “Oedipe” by George Enescu at the time. In 2020 he made his debut in Wiesbaden with Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” – Titov is a man for the difficult pieces. He is known, so to speak, as a “crass director,” he says: “I don’t get asked about Donizetti’s ‘Love Potion’.” That’s fine with him: “I enjoy the truth, the suffering, the things that really have content. The things that can change you, or that ask questions that show reasons. I’m also convinced that I couldn’t do everything; I’ve already turned down big pieces because they don’t suit me.”