Dmitri Tcherniakov

Дмитрий Черняков

Director

Biography

Russian theater director. He was born in Moscow in 1970. He began his professional career by directing dramatic plays, and his first "Golden Mask" award for best production was earned for "Double Inconstancy" (2002), based on Marivaux's play, at the Novosibirsk Theatre "Red Torch".

Tchernyakov approaches operatic works as dramas, adhering to the principles of psychological theater. His debut on the musical stage was marked by the world premiere of Vladimir Kobekin's opera "King David" (1998) at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. Here, Tchernyakov staged some of his most resonant productions, including Verdi's operas "Aida" (2004) and "Macbeth" (2008; co-production with the Paris Opera).

The musical director for both productions was conductor Teodor Currentzis, with whom Tchernyakov also collaborated on Berg's "Wozzeck" at the Bolshoi Theatre (2009) and Mozart's "Don Giovanni," a co-production of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Among Tchernyakov's other notable productions in Russia are Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh" and Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" at the Mariinsky Theatre (2001 and 2005; musical director - Valery Gergiev), Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Bolshoi Theatre (2006; musical director - Alexander Vedernikov). His staging of Glinka's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (musical director - Vladimir Yurovsky) in 2011 marked the reopening of the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Tchernyakov is the most sought-after Russian director in the world. His first international production was Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden (2005; musical director - Daniel Barenboim). Since then, Tchernyakov has worked at La Scala and the Met, directing productions in Munich, Zurich, Lyon, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. The premiere of "Sadko" at the Bolshoi Theatre took place in 2020.