Pınar Karabulut is a relative newcomer to the sadly small pool of female opera directors, but she is rapidly making her mark. It helps, of course, that she is already well known as a theatre director, with productions in major venues such as Zurich, Basel, at the Schauspiel Köln, the Volkstheater in Vienna and Berlin’s Volksbühne.

But, she tells me, her initiation into directing opera nearly didn’t happen. ‘One of the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s dramaturges, Dorothea Hartmann, saw a piece of mine at the Volksbühne and phoned me. I was so busy I didn’t recognise her number and so said, “Oh, no, I’m not interested, I have no time,” and I just hung up the phone. Then one week later she called me again. I had more time and listened.’ She wasn’t initially sure if she was up to the task, but as the piece – an open-air production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek during Covid in 2021 – had only four singers, she decided to give it a go. This was followed by 2023’s production of Puccini’s Il trittico on the Deutsche Oper’s main stage. Now, Karabulut is gearing up to a revival of Bellini’s I Capuleti ed I Montecchi in Magdeburg (seven performances, 25 January – 23 May), which launched last June at the Opéra national de Lorraine. And, in between, there has been a production of Ligeti’s surreal Le Grand Macabre.

Pınar, 37, wasn’t a total newcomer to the opera world. She took some opera courses as part of her degree in theatre studies, art history and German literature in Munich, and used to go to the opera – but was not initially a fan. ‘I had huge respect for the opera because I don’t read music and can’t play an instrument – so I’m really an outside eye’. I suggest this is possibly an advantage? ‘The first stage of preparing an opera is panic, and the next: also panic! Then I search for the opera on Spotify and listen to the music without reading or understanding the libretto. I just listen, thinking, “What’s going through my mind? What do I feel?” The second stage is reading the libretto and the third is working with my team – I have a pool of people I like working with.’ Costume designer Teresa Vergho and set designer Michela Flück have followed her from Trittico to Bellini.

Karabulut’s 2022 production of Il trittico at the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Directing opera and stage plays is different, Karabulut tells me: ‘You don’t have so much freedom in opera because the music is written and I can’t change things. For example, I can’t say, “Let’s make this scene double the length”. Music gives me a frame, but within that I can do anything I want. In the theatre world there are so many rules. When I direct something on stage people will say, “But that’s not what we do in the theatre world in Germany” and I say, “Art doesn’t have rules – we need to be free.” In the opera world, as I have experienced it so far, there are no limits.’

Her direction sometimes takes unusual forms. ‘I might ask, “Can you try it like this? Can you climb up on your colleague? At first they’ll say: “I don’t know if I can sing it because I need to move the muscles in my belly”, then two rehearsals later, “Oh, I can lift you up and sing”. The singers are so aware and I can work much faster because everyone is looking and listening. In the theatre everyone’s in their own world by themselves.’

There are other differences. ‘Working at Deutsche Oper was therapy for me because in the opera world everyone is so nice and respectful, and you don’t get that in the theatre world. Everyone tells me that you don’t get respected if you’re too nice to people, but I don’t want to be the patriarchal cliche.’

Starting out, Karabulut tells me she experienced sexism as a German Turkish-heritage woman. ‘One director said to me he couldn’t understand why I wanted to be an assistant director, as I would never be a director. I saw so many talented young women in the theatre who were unable to deal with the sexism and pressure go back to university and change their career.’ But not her. ‘When I was younger there was no one to go to. Everyone would say: “That’s your problem.” For years I’ve been building a network for younger women. I had a student director call me two days ago who was having problems with her stage designer and we talked for half an hour. I always try to be approachable and support the next generation.’ Certainly, Karabulut’s energy beams over Zoom like sunshine. Her direction, also, has a strong feminist outlook. ‘Most operas are quite misogynist, but there is a lot of opportunity.’ In Il tabarro she made the three protagonists the same age. She didn’t want to tell a story of a woman fleeing her husband for a younger man. ‘I wanted to tell the story of a couple who can’t overcome the trauma of losing their child because they’re not talking to each other.’

Karabulut sees Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet as very different from Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers. ‘We’re looking into Giulietta’s brain,’ she explains. ‘She’s stuck in her own room, in her own world. Romeo is just a metaphor for her being stuck in a depression. There are 40 or 50 Romeos on stage, all looking the same. She could have picked any of them. It’s a woman struggling with the pressure of being a woman and I think Tebaldo also has so much pressure to be a man in this Bellini world. For me, it’s an analysis of gender, depression and of being alone.’ Apart from the Wild West setting, there are two other major changes. The protagonists meet during the overture, and, more importantly, Romeo, played by mezzo-sopranos Emilie Renard and Weronika Rabek in the revival, is a woman and not a pants role. The idea of a gay relationship is never laboured. The fact that it exists at all in this patriarchal framework is enough.

Going from Bellini to Ligeti was a major step, says Karabulut. ‘Bellini was my first time doing bel canto, and I really liked it, but it’s not my favourite form of opera. I couldn’t go wild, and I love to go crazy and change things. I was very inspired by the Ligeti, because I love horror movies, and love the dystopia in it. There’s so much life in it and that’s what I was missing in the Bellini. It’s more about a love that is dying, whereas the Ligeti is more about someone learning how to love.’

Karabulut grew up in Mönchengladbach, the youngest of five siblings, and the only one with an arts career. For the next few years opera will take a back seat, as next August she takes up the post of co-intendant (artistic director) at Switzerland’s largest theatre: Zurich’s Schauspielhaus, on a five-year contract with an option to renew.

‘I love directing opera, and will be directing opera in the future.’ At some point, she would love to do a feminist Marriage of Figaro, something which is long overdue. Her dream is to direct in La Scala. ‘There is no space in my life for small dreams.’ ON

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today