Christian Räth made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2008’s Das Rheingold and returned for Die Walküre in 2010; he served as senior associate director for the entire Ring cycle in 2011. His productions include Falstaff at Washington National Opera; Die Zauberflöte at the Cairo Opera House, Egypt; Fidelio at the Dallas Opera; and Carmen at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. He served as associate director of La Traviata and Platée at the Santa Fe Opera and The Cunning Little Vixen at the Matsumoto Festival in Japan, and he directed the revival productions of Il Trovatore and West Side Story at the Bregenz Festival. Recent productions include Ariadne auf Naxos at Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen as well as Siegfried at Washington National Opera. A native of Hamburg, Germany, he has worked on the directorial teams of major opera houses throughout the U.S. and Europe, collaborating on productions such as Roméo et Juliette and Of Mice and Men at Houston Grand Opera; Luisa Miller at Madrid’s Teatro Real; Billy Budd at Paris Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; and Porgy and Bess and Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Lyon Opera. Recent and upcoming projects include Salome at the Matsumoto Festival, L'Elisir d'Amore at Milan’s La Scala, and La Fille du Régiment at the Metropolitan Opera.