Rareş Zaharia imposed himself in the last few years as one of the most interesting opera stage directors of his generation, and his productions have often been compared by the critics with those of Robert Wilson, Pina Bausch or his mentor, Silviu Purcarete for their beauty and complexity. He was born in a family of artists and started by studying the piano, history of art and singing, and established himself in Paris. In Paris he discovered and developped his passion for opera stage direction. Assistant of important stage directors such as Irina Brook (for the production of Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris) or Petrika Ionesco (Der fliegende Holländer at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège), he became the assistant for opera of Silviu Purcarete with whom he collaborated on the following productions: Gianni Schicchi at the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj, Measure for measure at the Marin Sorescu National Theatre in Craiova, Love and Other Demons by Peter Eötvös at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Artaserse by Leonardo Vinci at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy or Aleko and Francesca da Rimini by Rachmaninov at the Teatro Colon, in Buenos Aires. Silviu Purcarete trusted him with the revivals of his productions on great European stages (Love and Other Demons at the operas in Strasbourg and Cologne, Artaserse at the Opéra Royal de Versailles and Aleko and Francesca da Rimini at the Opéra National de Lorraine, in Nancy). Rareş Zaharia was selected for two consecutive years in the Academy of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, but also to the August Everding Bayeriseches Theaterakademie in Munich (with a project on Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas) and at the Verona Opera Academy (with a project on Isabeau by Pietro Mascagni). He made his debut as stage director at the Bucharest National Opera with Don Pasquale. He staged afterwards Mandragola by Gianluca Verlingieri (a project for which he also wrote the libretto) for the Academy of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Otello at the Craiova Opera, Hamlet-fragments (a semi-staged version after the opera by Ambroise Thomas) at the Temple du Luxembourg, in Paris, Lady Sarashina by Peter Eötvös at the Teatro Sao Luiz in Lisabon, Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss and Don Carlo both at the Craiova Opera. For the staging of Otello he received the Excellence Prize of the Elena Teodorini Academy of Arts and Sciences in London. He also won the second prize of stage direction concepts organized by the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2014 with a project on madrigals by Monteverdi.
