Pierre Audi

Pierre Audi (9 November 1957 – 3 May 2025) was an English-Lebanese theatre director and artistic director.

Early life Audi was born on 9 November 1957, the eldest of three children born to Lebanese banker Raymond Audi and Andrée Michel Fattal. Audi's family were originally from Saida, but he attended the French Lycée in Beirut. While still at school, he initiated a cinema club and invited speakers including the film directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Jacques Tati.

For family reasons, he moved to Paris in France and there attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris.

Almeida Theatre In 1979, Audi founded the Almeida Theatre, an experimental theatre in Islington, North London based in a derelict former Salvation Army and toy factory building supported by university friends and vigorous fundraising.

Dutch National Opera and later functions From London, Audi moved to Amsterdam, where he was the artistic director of the Dutch National Opera from 1988 to 2018. Audi's productions with the Dutch National Opera included the first complete performance of the Ring Cycle in the Netherlands, the Lorenzo Da Ponte operas by Mozart, Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Peter Greenaway's and Louis Andriessen's Rosa – A Horse Drama and Writing to Vermeer, Alexander Knaifel's Alice in Wonderland, and Claude Vivier's Rêves d'un Marco Polo which was paired with the world premiere performances of RAAFF in 2004. RAAFF is an opera by Dutch composer Robin de Raaff who dedicated the opera to Pierre Audi. Audi directed RAAFF after commissioning the opera for DNO and the Holland Festival. A directorial registration is available on YouTube . Audi commissioned the opera Life with an Idiot by Alfred Schnittke.

From 2005 to 2014, Audi also was the artistic director of the Holland Festival. In October 2015, he became the artistic director of Park Avenue Armory, while continuing his work as artistic director of the Dutch National Opera. In September 2018, he left the Dutch National Opera after a thirty-year tenure, and became director of the Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence.

Nicholas Payne described Audi’s opera productions as tending "towards the cerebral. He read widely and drew on a deep reservoir of cultural references". By contrast, his stagings were pared "back to the simplest elements, but also to add ambiguities which complicated them with questions".

Distinctions Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion (2000) Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund Award (2001) Johannes Vermeer Award (2009)