Claus Spahn

Claus Spahn is a dramaturge, author, and librettist, and has been the Chief Dramaturge at the Opernhaus Zürich since 2012. He shares a close artistic partnership with choreographer and director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Christian Spuck. In Zurich, he worked as a production dramaturge on choreographies including Anna Karenina, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Little Match Girl, and Monteverdi, all developed in collaboration with Spuck. Additionally, he wrote the libretto for Spuck's ballet creation Orlando based on Virginia Woolf's work, which premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2021.
In the realm of opera, Claus Spahn's interests primarily lie in contemporary music, Baroque repertoire, and the development of new concepts for music theatre. As an opera dramaturge, he has worked with composers such as Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, and Helmut Lachenmann, as well as directors including Sebastian Baumgarten, Herbert Fritsch, Jan Philipp Gloger, Tatjana Gürbaca, Andreas Homoki, Barrie Kosky, Nadja Loschky, David Marton, and Evgeny Titov.
Before joining the Zurich Opera House, Claus Spahn served as a feuilleton editor at the German weekly newspaper «DIE ZEIT» for 14 years, where he was responsible for the music department. He was born in Germany and studied classical guitar in Freiburg im Breisgau.