Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Lydia Steier studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. She then received a Fullbright scholarship and moved to Germany. She directed Eugène Ionesco's The Lesson at Berlin's HAU and Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King in Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Mexico City. She subsequently directed La clemenza di Tito and Brundibar at the Pittsburgh Opera-Theater, Lohengrin at the Los Angeles Opera, Madama Butterfly in Bremen and The Merry Widow at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar. Her work has been presented at international festivals in Hong Kong, Dublin and New York.Her stagings of Busoni's Turandot and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci earned her the title of Revelation of the Year by Deutschlandradio Kultur. Her staging of Stockhausen's Donnerstag aus Licht was chosen by Opernwelt magazine as the best staging of the 2015-2016 season, and her productions of Handel's Saul at the Staatstheater Oldenburg and Pascal Dusapin's Perelà at the Staatstheater Mainz were nominated for the FAUST-Theater prize.Recent productions include Julius Caesar at the Komische Oper Berlin, Turandot at the Cologne Opera, Les Troyens at the Semperoper Dresden, The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival, Œdipus Rex / Iolanta at the Frankfurt Opera, Diodati. Unendlich (Michael Wertmüller) at the Theater Basel, The Queen of Spades at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, La Juive, Alcina and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Staatsoper Hannover, Carmen at the Cologne Opera, Les Indes galantes at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, A Dream of Armageddon by Dai Fujikura at the New National Theater Tokyo and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Baden-Baden Festival.The 2023/24 season sees her stage Don Carlos at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Aida at Frankfurt Opera and Candide at Theater an der Wien.

At the Paris Opera: Salome, 2022