Award-winning director Deborah Warner premieres her new production of Berg’s Wozzeck this evening at the Royal Opera House. Conducted by Antonio Pappano, the cast includes new Askonas Holt signing John Findon alongside Christian Gerhaher, Anja Kampe, Peter Hoare and Brindley Sherratt. The production follows her critically-acclaimed Royal Opera House stagings of Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, with the latter winning an Olivier Award, an International Opera Award and a Critic’s Circle award, as well as a Diapason d’Or and a BBC Music Magazine Award for the DVD. Deborah’s Peter Grimes has been staged at the Opéra National de Paris and Teatro Real Madrid, with future revivals planned for 2024/25 and beyond. In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Deborah recalled how Wozzeck was her introduction to opera direction when she was asked to stage it at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1991. “I was so young, so unaware, so innocent of the form,” she said. “But the sheer brilliance of the piece was on my side and rereading the reviews now, I can sense that some of its visceral power must have been released in those performances.” This summer, she brings her double-bill of Phaedra and Minotaur to the Edinburgh International Festival. The project began as part of the Royal Opera House’s 4x4 series with an Olivier-award nomination for Christine Rice, before it was adapted for the Ustinov Theatre Bath, where Deborah is Artistic Director. Earlier this month, she announced the theatre’s 2023-24 season, which includes a new recital series that includes Askonas Holt artists Christine Rice, Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake.