Paul Curran is a graduate in Directing of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, and of the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki. He was Artistic Director of the Norwegian National Opera from 2007 – 2011.
Highlights of the 2011/12 season include Die Zauberflöte for Norwegian National Opera; Rusalka at the New National Theatre, Tokyo; Pagliacci at the Royal Danish Theatre; Tosca for the Canadian Opera Company; Albert Herring for LA Opera; a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Teatro Dell’Opera Roma; and Peter Grimes at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Curran’s extensive directorial credits include: a new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar's Bride at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Tannhäuser at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; La Bohème, Billy Budd, Albert Herring and Peter Grimes for Santa Fe Opera; Die Frau ohne Schatten and Lulu with the Chicago Lyric Opera; Ariadne auf Naxos for Flanders Opera, Antwerp; Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Otello and Tosca for Canadian Opera; I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata for Teatro Comunale, Florence; Die Fledermaus and L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Royal College of Music, London; Ariadne auf Naxos and Daphne (DVD) at Teatro La Fenice, Venice; Cherubin (DVD) in Cagliari; Peter Grimes and Otello at the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste; Tosca with Canadian Opera; Peter Grimes with Washington Opera and Otello for the Welsh National Opera; Pastorale (world premiere) for Stuttgart Opera; Il Trovatore (DVD) at the Teatro dell’Opera, Rome, Teatro Comunale, Bologna and Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo; Tristan und Isolde, BBC Symphony Orchestra; La Finta Giardiniera with Garsington Opera; I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Spoleto Festival, USA; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Die Konigskinder (Humperdinck) which won the Premio Abbiati; La Statira (Cavalli) and La Cenerentola (DVD) at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples; Mirandolina (Martinu) and Eva (Foerster) at the Wexford Festival; The Miserly Knight (Rachmaninov) and A Florentine Tragedy (Zemlinsky) at Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon; Prince Igor and Tosca with the Kirov Opera; the British premiere of Kullervo (Aulis Sallinen) for UCO in London; Hamlet with designer Vivienne Westwood for the Clerkenwell Music Series; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Man of La Mancha at the Covent Garden Festival (also recorded on CD); I Gioielli della Madonna (Wolf-Ferrari) for UCO; and Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, The Bear (Chekhov) and The Rehearsal (a new play, both as writer and director) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall.
Future engagements include new productions of La donna del lago for Sante Fe Opera and Tristan und Isolde for the Teatro La Fenice, Venice.
Paul Curran is represented by Intermusica.
April 2012 / 425 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
Britten Albert Herring
Los Angeles Opera, Cond. James Conlon
“Paul Curran’s production is terrific, particularly citing clever blocking and fluid set changes melding the acts together during interludes.”
Christie Grimstad, Concertonet.com, February 2012
Puccini Tosca
Canadian Opera Company, Cond. Paolo Carignani
“Strengthened at all points by … the staging. Curran’s deployment of the chorus was superb”
Robert Everett – Green, The Globe and Mail, January 2012
Puccini La Boheme
Santa Fe / cond. Leonardo Vordoni
“Director Paul Curran and his creative team have made an already tight script and score glow like a warm candle. Scene changes are so swift, if you look away for a second, you'll miss the transformation of Rodolfo's claustrophobic garret into a lively Parisian street.”
Judith Reynolds, The Durango Herald, July 2011
Rimsky-Korsakov The Tsar's Bride
Royal Opera House / cond. Mark Elder
“A Russian rarity proves to be a real treasure in a production set amid the trappings of new money.”
“Mr. Curran, in his overdue Covent Garden debut, ensures that the modern accouterments are tellingly used to work hand-in-hand with a taut staging of the core drama.”
George Loomis, New York Times, April 2011
…[a] compelling study of power and powerlessness in Curran's staging.
…this is a riveting performance of a violent, delirious melodrama.”
Anna Picard, The Independent, April 2011
“It's tawdry, flashy, trashy and menacing. Bodyguards dress in black suits and expensive shades, bulging with muscle and gun. It's a clever solution and gives an exciting dimension to this ponderous work, in which the "happy couple" remain as vital as miniature plastic figures on top of a wedding cake.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, April 2011
“…throws the old and new of this exciting evening into startling relief”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, April 2011
“The operas of Rimsky-Korsakov are traditionally synonymous with enchanted fairytale settings and chocolate-box stagings. To think outside the box of magic realism takes some courage but that is what Paul Curran has done in his remarkable new production of The Tsar's Bride.
It's true that this opera is a tragedy rather than one of the lightweight comedies, but Curran has chosen to explore the darker side of the work by relocating the action from the court of Ivan the Terrible to contemporary Russia.
Curran's boldly imaginative production”
Barry Millington, Evening Standard, April 2011
“As Elaine Padmore’s tenure as the ROH’s director of opera comes towards an end, this new production of a major rarity is a reminder of the expertise and imagination she has brought to her work.
It’s a fortuitous combination, because Curran and designer Kevin Knight bring contemporary Russia alive before our eyes, seeing parallels between the repressive mayhem of the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the blend of vulgarity and violence associated with the modern Russian mafia.
Dramatically, the evening rises steadily up to Marfa’s searing final mad scene, Curran charting its slow burn with unerring skill.”
George Hall, The Stage, April 2011
“Paul Curran’s lavish production ignores the nostalgia for the ancien regime which Rimsky’s score emanates (the anthem “Slava!” functions as a leitmotiv and there are several pseudo-folk tunes). Instead he opts for a grittily contemporary approach, evoking the gloss and squalor of Putin’s Moscow through Kevin Knight’s magnificent sets (a posh restaurant, a back street, a penthouse suite, a gilded palace), complete with table-dancers and mafia heavies.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, April 2011
“Taking a work by Rimsky-Korsakov that is almost unknown outside Russia and has never before been performed at Covent Garden might seem a risky venture for the ROH, but the production directed by Paul Curran surpasses all expectations.”
William Hartston, The Express, April 2011