Àlex Ollé (; born 1960) is one of the six artistic directors of

La Fura dels Baus La Fura dels Baus () is a Spanish theatrical group founded in 1979 in Moià, Barcelona (Spain), known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan me ...

. Prominent works from its early period include ''Accions'' (1984), ''Suz/O/Suz'' (1985), ''Tier Mon'' (1988), ''Noun'' (1990) and ''MTM'' (1994), which established ''La Fura dels Baus'' as a top company among both critics and the public.

Opera

The first operas that Àlex Ollé directed were joint projects with Carlus Padrissa and the artist

Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa i Suñé (; born 23 August 1955) is a Spanish people, Catalan visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver. He has also created opera sets, video projections and acoustic installations. Biography Plensa was born in Barcelona, Ca ...

: ''L’Atlàntida'' (1996) by

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20t ...

and ''Le martyre de Saint Sébastien'' (1997) by

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

. These were followed by ''La damnation de Faust'' by Héctor Berlioz, which debuted in 1999 at the Salzburg Festival; ''DQ. Don Quijote en Barcelona'' (2000), with music by José Luis Turina and libretto by Justo Navarro, which premiered at the

Gran Teatre del Liceu Gran may refer to: People *Grandmother, affectionately known as "gran" * Gran (name) Places * Gran, the historical German name for Esztergom, a city and the primatial metropolitan see of Hungary * Gran, Norway, a municipality in Innlandet coun ...

de Barcelona; '' Die Zauberflöte'' he magic flute(2003) by

W. A. Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

, as part of the Ruhr Biennale, a co-production of the Opéra National in Paris and the Teatro Real in Madrid; ''Bluebeard’s castle'' by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

and ''Diary of one who disappeared'' (2007) by ''

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

'', presented under a single programme, premiered in Opera Garnier, a co-production of the Opéra National in Paris and the Gran Teatre del Liceu. With the collaboration of Valentina Carrasco, he directed the ''mise-en-scène'' of ''Le grand macabre'' (2009) by

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

, which premiered in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. A coproduction between the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the English National Opera and the Opera di Roma. In 2010, this stage work was selected to open the 50th Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia. Together with Carlus Padrissa he directed ''Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'' ise and fall of the city of Mahagonny(2010) by

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

, which debuted at the Teatro Real in Madrid and was rebroadcast live to 127 movie theatres in Europe and Mexico. In 2011, he directed ''Quartet'' by

Luca Francesconi Luca Francesconi (born 17 March 1956) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, later with Karlheinz Stockhausen and then Luciano Berio. Early years Luca Francesconi was born in Milan. His father was a painter who edited ...

'','' based on the play of the same name by

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...

. The opera debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and was co-produced with the Wiener Festwochen. This production received the prestigious Abbiati Award for "La migliore Novità assoluta". This year he is also presenting ''Tristan und Isolde'' by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

at the Opéra in Lyon. French critics have chosen this production as one of the top three winners of the year by the newspaper ''Le Temps''. In 2011, in collaboration with Valentina Carrasco, he also directed ''Oedipe'' by George Enescu, co-produced by the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris. His first

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

''Un ballo in maschera'', opened in Sydney Opera House in January 2013, won the Helpmann Award for the opera stage direction in the season 2012–2013. This is a production between Opera Sidney, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet of Oslo. During the 2013 he also directed'' Il Prigioniero''

Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (3 February 1904 – 19 February 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Croati ...

/ ''Erwartung''

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, ...

, opened in Justice & Injustice festival in the Opéra de Lyon and ''Aida,'' together with Carlus Padrissa, to open the Centenario de l’Arena di Verona. In 2014 he premiered

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

's ''Madama Butterfly'' at the Handa Opera; ''Faust'' by Charles Gounod, a coproduction of the Teatro Real and the Nederlandse Opera, and ''Der Fliegende Holländer'' by Richard Wagner, produced by the Opéra de Lyon, the Opéra de Lille, Opera Australia (Melbourne Opera) and the Bergen Nasjonale Opera. He directed ''Pelleas et Melisande'', by

, at the Semperoper Dresden in 2015, and later ''Il Trovatore'', by Giuseppe Verdi, a staging inspired by World War I, co-produced by De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and the Opéra National de Paris. In February 2016, this production was rebroadcast live to 180 European cinemas during its representations in Opéra de la Bastille in Paris. In September he opened the season at The Royal Opera House in London with

Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the era, he was admired not only ...

‘s ''Norma'', a show that was broadcast live in more than100 European cinemas. In October he has premiered ''La Bohème'' by Giacomo Puccini in the Teatro Regio Torino, to celebrate the 120th anniversary of its release, a co-production with the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. During 2017 he premiered the Christoph Willibald Gluck's ''Alceste'' at Opéra Lyon, and the ''Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher''

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss-French composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, '' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher'' is "more even ...

and ''La damoiselle élue''

diptych, co-produced between Oper Frankfurt and Teatro Real de Madrid. In 2018, he adds to his constant review of the Faust's myth, the ''Mefistofele'' by

Arrigo Boito Arrigo Boito (; born Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito; 24 February 1842 10 June 1918) was an Italian librettist, composer, poet and critic whose only completed opera was ''Mefistofele''. Among the operas for which he wrote the libretto, libretti ar ...

, co-produced by the Opéra de Lyon and the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2019, he premiered the newly created contemporary opera Frankenstein at the theater of La Monnaie de Munt, Brussels, with music by Marc Gray and libretto by Júlia Canosa, based on an original idea of Àlex Ollé inspired by the Mary Shelley's novel. In July, he premieres Turandot one of

's great operas, at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan theater within the programming of the Cultural Olympiad Tokyo 2020, that tours in Japan to three other opera theaters. In October 2019, he premieres the opera Manon Lescaut of

at the Frankfurt Opera. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all planned productions were postponed to the following seasons. In March 2021, he premiered Ariane et Barbe Bleue by

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

, a coproduction from Opera de Lyon and Teatro Real in Madrid. Later in July he premiered

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become ...

’s Carmen at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, and in September Idoménéé by

André Campra André Campra (; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French composer and conductor of the Baroque era. The leading French opera composer in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Campra wrote several '' trag ...

, a coproduction from Ópera de Lille and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. In 2022 he premiered The Nose by

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

, a coproduction between The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. In March 2023, he premiered Rusalka by

Antonin Dvorák Antonin may refer to: People * Antonin (name) Places ;Poland * Antonin, Jarocin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Kalisz County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Oborniki County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Ostr� ...

at Bergen National Opera. In October he premiered L'amore dei tre re by

Italo Montemezzi Italo Montemezzi (August 4, 1875 – May 15, 1952) was an Italian composer. He is best known for his opera '' L'amore dei tre re'' (''The Love of the Three Kings''), once part of the standard repertoire. It is now seldom performed. Biography ...

, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Large-scale shows

In collaboration with Carlus Padrissa, Ollé created and directed ''Mediterrani, mar olímpic'', the epicentre of the opening ceremony of the 1992

Barcelona Olympic Games The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

, an event that fascinated and left a mark on millions of viewers around the world. He has also participated in many large-scale shows, either alone or in collaboration with Carlus Padrissa, such as ''La navaja en el ojo'', for the opening of the 2001 Valencia Biennial; ''Naumaquia'', created for the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona in 2004; the ''opening'' of the Track Cycling World Championships in Palma de Mallorca in 2007; ''Window of the city'', the thematic show for Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China and ''Istambul, Istambul'' in 2012, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV). In 2014 he created, with the architect

Benedetta Tagliabue Benedetta Tagliabue (born 23 June 1963) is an Italian architect based in Barcelona. Along with Spanish architect Enric Miralles, the pair co-founded EMBT Architects, an international studio, where she is currently the principal and director. S ...

''BCN.RESET'', a route of ephemeral architecture through the streets of Barcelona.

Theater

The plays that Àlex Ollé has directed include ''F@ust 3.0'' (1998), based on the novel Faust by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

; XXX (2001), based on ''La philosophie dans le boudoir'' hilosophy in the bedroomby the

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...

, both in collaboration with Carlus Padrissa; ''Metamorphosis'' (2005), together with Javier Daulte, based on

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

’s text and ''Boris Godunov'' (2008), with David Plana, a play based on the attack on the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow and on the work of

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

. In 2010 he co-directed

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

’s ''First love'' with Miquel Gorriz, a co-production of the Chekov International Theatre Festival in Moscow and the Grec Theatre Festival in Barcelona. In 2018, he premieres L'Histoire du Soldat, by

Igor Stravinski Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

, at the Radiant-Bellevue Theater, co-produced by Lyon's National Opera, Lausanne's Opera and Montpellier's National Opera, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the premiere.

Cinema

His sole foray into the world of film is '' Fausto 5.0'', a movie he co-directed with Carlus Padrissa and Isidro Ortiz, a screenplay by Fernando León de Aranoa. Debuting in 2001 at the

Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy, horror and cult films. Established in 1968, the festival takes place every year, usually in e ...

, it received the Méliès d’Or Award in 2003 (among others) for the best European fantasy film.

External links

La Fura dels Baus

Àlex Ollé

Notes and references

Sources

Centro Dramático Nacional The Centro Dramático Nacional ("National Drama Centre" or CDN) is a Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metro ...

Boris Godunov, La Fura dels Baus
2008 p. 6 *Crusells Valeta, Magí
"Ollé, Àlex"
''Directores de cine en Cataluña: de la A a la Z'', Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 2009, p. 185. , *Dessau, Bruce
"La Fura Dels Baus bring their eye-popping take on Ligeti to London"
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', September 5, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Olle, Alex Helpmann Award winners Spanish theatre directors Spanish opera directors People from Barcelona 1960 births Living people