Bettina Auer was born in Heidelberg and lives in Berlin. She studied musical theater direction as well as musicology and German philology in Hamburg and Berlin. In addition to her engagements as an expert and dramaturge for musical drama at theaters in Bern, Darmstadt, Basel, and the Komische Oper in Berlin, she oversaw productions and projects in the fields of drama and dance, developing numerous original creations.



As a freelance dramaturge and consultant, she has worked for the Salzburg Festival, the Opernhaus in Zurich, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Radialsystem and the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Israel Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Theater of Cologne, the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Teatro Argentino, the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, the Teatro Canal in Madrid, the Nationaltheatret and the Norske Operaen in Oslo, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Residenztheater and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Staatsoper in Hamburg, the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Burgtheater, the Theater an der Wien, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Paris Opera.



Since 2009, she has collaborated continuously with Calixto Bieito. She has also worked with Stefan Bachmann, Karin Beier, Tatjana Gürbaca, Claus Guth, Jasmina Hadziahmetović, Barbora Horáková, Barrie Kosky, Hans Neuenfels, Stefan Pucher, Nicolas Stemann, and Michael Thalheimer.



Bettina Auer has been invited to teach at various universities in Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden. For many years, she has taught at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin (directing and dramaturgy classes), which recently appointed her as honorary professor.


At the Paris Opera: Lear, 2016; The Exterminating Angel, 2024; Das Rheingold, 2025

Bettina AuerDramatist