Stage director Anna Bernreitner studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2011, she founded OPER RUND UM, an artist collective dedicated to staging opera in unconventional locations.
Over the past decade, she has directed and produced numerous productions in unique settings, bringing opera to swimming pools, abandoned factories, deep forests, and the streets.
Her innovative work with OPER RUND UM earned her the Cultural Recognition Prize of the region of Lower Austria in 2017 and the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in 2019.
She has directed several children’s operas at Theater an der Wien and staged Tchaikovsky’s The Slippers at Theater für Niedersachsen. She has collaborated multiple times with the Wir-sind-Wien.Festival and has also worked with the Salzburg Festival, Jeunesse Wien, and the Philharmonie Luxembourg. In the summer of 2021, she was responsible for staging the Vienna State Opera’s touring production in collaboration with the Donauinselfest.
For the Bayerische Staatsoper, she directed pop-up performances in public spaces for the opening of the 2021/22 season, as well as the children’s opera Max and the Superheroes.
The Future of Opera and Endless Creativity
In France, she directed The Magic Flute at the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Opéra National Montpellier. Other productions include The Abduction from the Seraglio at Theater Bielefeld and The Golden Cockerel and The Love for Three Oranges at Theater Magdeburg, the latter a co-production with the Opéra National de Lorraine and Theater St. Gallen.
In the summer of 2023, she returned to Braunschweig for another open-air production, staging Tosca at Burgplatz. She also directed La Bohème and the operetta cabaret Schön ist die Welt (Beautiful is the World) at Tiroler Landestheater, as well as The Fairy Queen on the Flumserberg at 1,400 meters above sea level for Theater St. Gallen.
As part of the Johann-Strauss-Festival, she also staged the operetta Indigo und die 23 Räuber:innen (Indigo and the 23 Robbers), which toured all 23 districts of Vienna and was performed open-air in public spaces.
Recent highlights include her acclaimed debut at the Opera in Zurich with Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Zweimal Alexander / Lady Magnesia at Theater an der Wien, and Peter and the Wolf with the Berlin Philharmonic.
In the 2026/27 season, Bernreitner continues her collaboration with St. Gallen with a new production of La Cenerentola and returns to the Philharmonie Luxembourg. She will kick-off the season at the Neue Staatsoper in Vienna with Karussell, a co-production with the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy. In addition, she makes her debut at Theater Freiburg with Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods.
In November 2021, her production of Rihm’s Proserpina premiered at Neue Oper Wien. This staging was awarded the Götz Friedrich Prize.
