Praised by The New York Times as “one of our more ambitious and effective younger directors,” R.B. Schlather has built a distinctive international career creating productions that emphasize the immediacy and physical intensity of live performance. His work spans major opera houses and concert halls as well as historic buildings, museums, galleries, and found spaces, with a particular affinity for Baroque repertoire and contemporary approaches to canonical works.
This season, Schlather makes major international debuts at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence with a new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and at Den Norske Opera & Ballett with a new production of Puccini’s La bohème. He also directs a new Irish National Opera production of Rameau’s Les Boréades, in partnership with Luail, Ireland’s National Dance Company, and in association with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, which will subsequently travel to the Royal Opera in London. Schlather also returns to Hudson Hall for Handel’s Deidamia, continuing Handel on the Hudson, his multi-year collaboration with the early-music ensemble Ruckus.
Last season, Schlather returned to Oper Frankfurt for a new production of Steffani’s Amor vien dal destino. His radically minimal production of Barber’s Vanessa, created with Heartbeat Opera for the 2025 Williamstown Theatre Festival, received its New York premiere with Heartbeat Opera and was named among The New York Times’ Best Classical Music and Opera of 2026. At the Santa Fe Opera, he directed Handel’s Rodelinda, a new production re-envisioned from his acclaimed 2023 Hudson Hall staging. The engagement marked his first return to Santa Fe since making his company debut with Così fan tutte in 2019.
In the 2024–25 season, Schlather created a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth for Oper Frankfurt and directed Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Hudson Hall with Ruckus, the latter named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. He also created Vanessa with Heartbeat Opera at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the first opera presented in the festival’s history.
Schlather has enjoyed a significant relationship with Oper Frankfurt since making his European debut there with Handel’s Tamerlano in 2019. He has subsequently created new productions of Cimarosa’s L’Italiana in Londra, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s Macbeth, and Steffani’s Amor vien dal destino for the company. Several of these productions have returned to the Oper Frankfurt stage in subsequent seasons, including Tamerlano, L’Italiana in Londra, Madama Butterfly, and Macbeth.
His ongoing exploration of Handel began with the open-process installations Alcina and Orlando, presented in a Lower East Side storefront gallery, and has evolved into Handel on the Hudson, a multi-year collaboration with Hudson Hall and Ruckus. His productions of Rodelinda and Giulio Cesare at Hudson Hall were both named New York Times Critics’ Picks. His staging of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s The Mother of Us All at Hudson Hall was named one of the best classical music performances of 2017 by The New York Times.
Other notable projects include Fluxus: Fluxconcert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the world premiere of David Hertzberg’s The Wake World for Opera Philadelphia and the world premiere of Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf at Green-Wood Cemetery; Philip Glass’ In the Penal Colony for Boston Lyric Opera and Madrigal Opera at National Sawdust; David Lang’s the little match girl passion at Pérez Art Museum Miami; John Adams’ Doctor Atomic at Curtis Opera Theatre; and Salome at the Fisher Center at Bard.
Schlather received a BA in Art History with a minor in Drama from Ithaca College. He is a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists and is represented by Opus 3 Artists.
2026-2027
