Born in Budapest in 1961, Sándor Zsótér is a director and dramaturg who has played an important role in numerous Hungarian films. He is one of the most inventive theatre-makers in contemporary theatre. His free interpretations of text and bold scenic ideas make his work fit integrally into international trends. In 1983, after graduating from the University of Theatre and Film Arts, he worked as a dramaturg for the Hevesi Sándor Theatre in Zalaegerszeg, moving on to Szolnok in 1985, then to the Radnóti Theatre in 1986. After another position as dramaturg, this time at Nyíregyháza's Móricz Zsigmond Theatre that started in 1990, he was made a director at the National Theatre of Miskolc from 1992, but with regular invitations to direct at the Katona József Theatre, the Comedy Theatree and the Radnóti Miklós Theatre in Budapest and, for a few years, at the National Theatre of Szeged. He creates extraordinary productions when staging both the classic texts of Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Dürrenmatt and Rostand and the contemporary dramatic literature by Caryl Churchill, Lajos Parti Nagy and Thomas Ostermeier. He has received numerous awards, including the Mari Jászai Award (1998), the Kálmán Nádasdy Award (2004) and the Kossuth Prize (2006), and his various productions have won the Theatre Critics' Award more than ten times. He first directed at the Opera House in 2003 with stagings of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Schönberg's Erwartung. The Opera's present repertoire includes his productions of Leander and Linseed and Der Freischütz at the Erkel Theatre.