Christoph Hagel is a conductor, stage director, pianist, inventor of new cultural formats in crossover and the producer/director of numerous opera productions.
He brought Don Giovanni to the Berlin Electricity Works Factory (Ewerk), The Magic Flute to the subway, Orpheus and Euridice to the Bode Museum, and the danced version of Bach’s St. John Passion to the Berlin Cathedral.
In 2010, he received the Echo Classic Prize for “Flying Bach.” Since its debut in the New National Gallery in Berlin, the show has been appearing in venues all over the world. Three more Urban Dance productions by Christoph Hagel are internationally successful : "Breakin`Mozart" (2013), "Beethoven!The Next Level" (2016) and "Fuck You Wagner!" (2016).
One of Christoph Hagel’s main areas of focus is Mozart’s operatic creations. He has brought ten of his central operatic works to the stage in Berlin.
Christoph Hagel has fused urban culture with an entire opera for the first time in his most recent production „Zauberflöte reloaded“. The production was enthusiastically acclaimed at its opening night at Mozartfest 2018 and in its first season in Munich in 2019.
Christoph Hagel has conducted new music by Schönberg, Webern and Boulez at international music festivals, created new musicals with children, new opera librettos together with Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and has prepared and conducted many of the great classical-romantic symphonies with South American orchestras.
As conductor and stage director in one person, Christoph Hagel brings classical music to the audience of the future: an artist sui generis.
“Christoph Hagel, famous for the most spectacular, independently financed opera productions in the capital, unforgettable in his “The Magic Flute in the Subway,” unattainable in his “Flying Bach.” For “Flying Bach” he brought high culture and urban dance together in the New National Gallery in such a unique way that he has been filling the largest concert venues in the world with the production for years now.” – Berliner Zeitung
“Music is communication. Musicians communicate with each other, the conductor communicates with members of the orchestra. Together, they communicate with the audience. The conductor reacts to every impulse of the orchestra with an impulse of his own. His goal is to react well in every moment of the music. The stage director does not differ in his actions. He reacts to the actors. Music and Theater belong to the great school of social discourse.” – Christoph Hagel