Àlex Ollé

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Àlex Ollé (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈaɫəks uˈʎe]) (Barcelona, 1960) is one of the six artistic directors of La Fura dels Baus, one of the most innovative and prestigious theatre companies on the international scene, which was founded in 1979 and has been characterised from the start by the search for its own language in which public participation is key for developing the show. 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.

In collaboration with Carlus Padrissa, Ollé created and directed Mediterrani, mar olímpic, the epicentre of the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, an event that fascinated and left a mark on millions of viewers around the world.

Since then, Ollé’s theatrical career has been characterised by different genres, creating and directing plays, operas and large-format shows for different commemorations and events, always with the mark of his own personal language and that of the company he founded.

The plays that Àlex Ollé has directed include F@ust 3.0 (1998), based on the novel Faust by Goethe; XXX (2001), based on La philosophie dans le boudoir [Philosophy in the bedroom] by the Marquis de Sade, both in collaboration with Carlus Padrissa; Metamorphosis (2005), together with Javier Daulte, based on Franz Kafka’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. In 2010 he co-directed Samuel Beckett’s First love with Miquel Gorriz, a co-production of the Chekov International Theatre Festival in Moscow and the Grec Theatre Festival in Barcelona.

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 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).

His sole foray into the world of film is Faust 5.0, a movie he co-directed with Carlus Padrissa and Isidro Ortiz. Debuting in 2001 at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, it received the Méliès d’Or Award in 2003 (among others) for the best European fantasy film.

The first operas that Àlex Ollé directed were joint projects with Carlus Padrissa: L’Atlàntida (1996) by Manuel de Falla and Le martyre de Saint Sébastien (1997) by Claude Debussy. 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 de Barcelona; Die Zauberflöte [The magic flute] (2003) by W. A. Mozart, 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 and Diary of one who disappeared (2007) by Leoš Janáček, presented under a single programme, a co-production of the Opéra National in Paris and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. With the collaboration of Valentina Carrasco, he directed the mise-en-scène of Le grand macabre (2009) by György Ligeti, co-produced by the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the English National Opera in London 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 [Rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny] (2010) by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, which debuted at the Teatro Real in Madrid and was rebroadcast live via satellite to 127 movie theatres in Europe in Mexico.

In 2011, he directed Quartet by Luca Francesconi, based on the play of the same name by Heiner Müller. The opera debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and was co-produced with the Wiener Festwochen in collaboration with IRCAM in Paris. This production received the prestigious Abbiati Award for La migliore Novità assoluta. This year he is also presenting Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner 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 he also opens 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 most recent work is Un ballo in maschera (January 2013) by Giuseppe Verdi, opened in the Sydney Opera House, a production between Opera Australia, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brusels and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet of Oslo.

His new productions for this year are Dallapiccola's Erwartung/Il Prigioniero and Verdi's Aida.

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