Floris Visser

Biography

In 2013 Floris Visser was appointed as Artistic Director of the opera company Opera Trionfo, where he staged Britten’s Owen Wingrave. In 2013 he also directed Puccini’s La Bohème at the Osnabrück State Theatre.

Floris has been awarded the Charlotte Köhler Award 2013 Theatre by the Prince Bernhard Culture Foundation. In 2012 he received the honour of becoming the youngest person ever appointed as Cultural Professor at the Delft University of Technology. Here he created a most successful production of Bizet’s Carmen.

Floris Visser was first educated as a director and actor at the Theatre Academy of Maastricht. Later he also studied classical singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Already during his studies as an actor he performed in Orfeo Intermezzi and Mothers, Sons, Daughters directed by Mirjam Koen at the Independent Theatre in Rotterdam, and he was appointed professor of drama and dramaturgy at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He served as assistant director for Dialogues des Carmelites (directed by Alexander Oliver) and L’Incoronazione di Poppea (directed by Javier Lopez Pinon) in The Hague and Boris Godunov (directed by Willy Decker) at Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. As an actor he performed Othello in Shakespeare’s eponymous tragedy, Alceste in Moliere’s The Misanthrope and Creon in Sophocles’ Antigone. He also played various roles in Schnitzler’s Reigen. He was responsible for creating and directing music theatre plays such as Rupert, eine Geschichte and Handel. In the latter he performed next to well-known Dutch actor and director Hans Croiset. He directed Le Groupe des Six, as well as Faust in a co-production together with Ensemble Electra. He also took part in several productions that were collectively produced, such as Angel on the tongue, Chalet, City of the Blind (Saramago), and Guantanamo Bay, the musical. For national KRO-television he produced programs together with Fons de Poel and for the Musica Sacra Festival his own documentary As Mary of Magdalene.

In more recent years he started focusing primarily on opera. He was invited to direct Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the occasion of the birthday celebrations of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix and Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet at the Royal Theater Carré Amsterdam. These events were followed by his own productions of Menotti’s The Telephone and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine. This show was invited to the International Theatre Festival Amsterdam. After this he made his debut in the main hall with Handel’s Agrippina for the Handel Festival at the Royal Theatre (artistic director: Michael Chance). This production was prolonged by an international tour to Italy (Modena), and after that he was invited to direct Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito (music director: Richard Egarr) at the Lucent Dance Theatre, which was also mounted at the Anghiari Festival in Italy. Subsequently artistic director Jos Thie of the Utrechtse Spelen engaged Floris as a dramaturg for the most successful series of performances of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the royal palace of Soestdijk in 2011.

In the season of 2011 his production of Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino was played at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Berlin at the Young EuroClassicFestival. In the same season of 2011 Floris adapted and directed Viktor Jerofejev’s novella and Alfred Schnittke’s opera Life with an idiot on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Netherlands Opera. Floris’ productions also included a staged version of Bach’s Matthew Passion.

Floris Visser also serves as an opera educator for Dutch National Opera Academy and the Conservatory of Amsterdam.