Performance Database

Born in Berlin, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin. He assisted Ruth Berghaus and Einar Schleef. He also worked at the opera houses of Cologne, Salzburg, Zurich, Berlin, Kassel, Stuttgart, Hannover, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf.

From 1999 to 2002 he was head director at the Staatstheater Kassel, from 2003 to 2005 at the Meininger Theater. In 2002 he received the Götz Friedrich Award for his production of Tosca at the Staatstheater Kassel.

In recent years he mainly worked on productions in straight theatre and multi-discipline productions, such as X-Wohnungen and epidemic based on Lars von Trier at HAU Berlin (2004). For his production of Händel’s Orest (2006) at the Komische Oper Berlin, he was selected as director of the year by the critics from the magazine “Opernwelt“.

He also worked on Hexenjagd at the Schauspiel Köln (2006) and Faust at the Schauspiel Hannover (2007). Among others Baumgarten directed Britten’s Peter Grimes (2007) at the Semperoper Dresden, Der Meister und Margarita at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (2008), Tosca at the Volksbühne Berlin (2008), Requiem with the text In der Schlangegrube. Sechs Lebenslinien by Armin Petras and Jan Kauenhowen at the Komische Oper Berlin (2008), Der Fremde at the Schauspiel Frankfurt (2008) – which was later shown at Maxim Gorki Theater in 2009 – and Werther at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (2009). In 2010 he directed Der goldne Topf at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Dantons Tod at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, and also Die Banditen at the Theater Neumarkt as part of the Zürcher Festspiele. At the Schauspielhaus Zurich he worked on Die Affäre Rue de Lourcine by Eugène Labiche 2010/2011.

These productions were followed by works at the Leipziger Schauspielhaus (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, 2011), at the Komische Oper Berlin (Carmen, 2011), Staatstheater Stuttgart (Das Spiel ist aus, 2012), Staatsschauspiel Dresden (Die Räuber, 2012), Staatsoper Hannover (Il trittico, 2012), Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf (Die Macht der Finsternis, 2012). In 2013, his production of Bertolt Brecht's Die heilige Jungfrau der Schlachthöfe (Schauspielhaus Zürich) was invited to the festival „Berliner Theatertreffen“. Further works will follow at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Schauspiel Köln, Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, Schauspielhaus and Opernhaus Zürich, Staatstheater Dresden.

In 2013, he went to Shanghei as a teacher of a master class. In the fall of 2013, Sebastian Baumgarten became professor and head of the study program for directing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.