Vera Nemirova

Vera Nemirova (, born 1972) is a Bulgarian-German opera director who has worked at major opera houses in Europe, staging productions at the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper, Oper Frankfurt, the Salzburg Festival and the Munich Biennale.

Career

Born in Sofia, Nemirova has lived in Germany since 1982. She studied directing music theatre (Musiktheaterregie) at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, taking master classes with Ruth Berghaus and Peter Konwitschny.

At the Vienna State Opera, she staged Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame) in 2007. Performances and revivals of the production were conducted by Valery Gergiev, Timur Zangiev and Michael Güttler. Revivals featured singers including Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, Olga Borodina, Elena Guseva, Elena Zaremba, Dmitry Golovnin, Boris Pinkhasovich, Alexey Markov and Monika Bohinec.

She directed Verdi's Macbeth at the Vienna State Opera in 2009 and staged Alban Berg's Lulu at the Salzburg Festival in 2010. Nemirova also worked regularly with the State Opera Varna. She directed Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame) for the Varna Summer International Music Festival in a production conducted by Pavel Baleff.

She staged Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the State Opera Varna in 2023 and 2024, conducted by Svetoslav Borisov and Rossen Gergov, with singers including Deyan Vatchkov, Sofia Soloviy, Linka Stoyanova and Valeriy Georgiev.

In 2025, she directed a new production of Gounod's Faust at the State Opera Varna, conducted by Svetoslav Borisov, with singers including Arthur Espiritu, Reinaldo Droz, Deyan Vatchkov and Martin Tsonev.

She also directed Kálmán's operetta Countess Maritza at the State Opera Varna, conducted by Stefan Boyadzhiev.

Awards

The Academy of the Arts in Berlin awarded the Berliner Kunstpreis (Berlin Art Prize) of 2006 to Nemirova.