Paul-Georg Dittrich

Paul-Georg Dittrich studied directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre from 2007 to 2011. He has directed productions at the Stuttgart State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Cologne Opera, the Aalto Music Theatre Essen, the Kassel State Theatre, the Halle Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Linz State Theatre, Volkstheater Vienna, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Theater Bremen, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Theater Heidelberg, Theater Bielefeld, Theater Münster, Schauspielhaus Vienna, Theater Augsburg, Staatstheater Schwerin, Theater Oberhausen, Theater Aachen, Theater Kiel and Kampnagel Hamburg.

Awards include the 2018 Rolf Mares Theatre Prize in Hamburg in the category „Outstanding Production” for ‘I.th.Ak.A.’ by Samuel Penderbayne at the Hamburg State Opera; German Theatre Prize FAUST 2017 – nomination in the category “Musical Theatre Direction” for the opera production “La damnation de Faust” by Hector Berlioz at the Theater Bremen; German Theatre Prize FAUST 2016 – nomination in the category “Musical Theatre Direction” for the opera production “Wozzeck” by Alban Berg at the Theater Bremen. Invitation to the 2017 Theatertreffen NRW with the production of „Die Wand“, based on the novel by Marlene Haushofer, at Theater Aachen.

In addition to poetic storytelling and the imaginative incorporation of audio-visual media, Dittrich's work always focuses on the artistic search for a contemporary symbiosis between music and spoken theatre, for experimental forms of performance and unconventional spatial theatre settings. At the heart of this theatrical signature is the idea that theatre cannot exist without conflict. That theatre must be a place of contradiction, because only then can dialogue between people arise.

Paul-Georg Dittrich is a sought-after voice in the current academic discourse on opera and music theatre. To date, he has written texts, essays and articles for the magazine Die Deutsche Bühne, as well as in Oper raus!: Aesthetic Reformatting and Social Contradictions (Thurnau Writings on Music Theatre)‘ and „Opera and Film: Stories of a Relationship“.

Since 2021, Paul-Georg Dittrich has been a guest lecturer at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre in the field of music theatre direction. He is also a founding member of the interdisciplinary music theatre collective „HearEyeSay”.

In the 2025.26 season, he will direct productions at the Staatstheater Kassel and the Cologne Opera, among others, where he will stage the Ring cycle in the coming years.