Stage Director
Various Countries
Born in Oviedo in a family of singers (his grandfather Emilio Sagi-Barba, his father Enrique Sagi-Barba and his uncle Luis Sagi-Vela), after graduating in Philosophy and Literature at Oviedo University, he moved to London to study Musicology. In 1980 he made his debut as director with Verdi’s La traviata in Oviedo. From December 1990 to the end of 1999 he was General Director of Zarzuela Theatre in Madrid, where his first production in 1982, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, was followed by many other opera and zarzuela productions.
From October 2001 to August 2005 he has been Artistic Director of Teatro Real de Madrid; from 2008 to 2016 he has held the same position in Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao.
Since 2001 his acclaimed production of Il viaggio a Reims is regularly presented at Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro every year.
In November 2018 he has been involved in the reopening of Théâtre Marigny in Paris, as stage director of the musical Peau d´Âne by Michel Legrand.
Emilio Sagi’s stage experience covers styles ranging from baroque to zarzuela and modern opera; he staged opera productions in several national and international theatres and festivals: Teatro alla Scala, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Theatre de l´Odéon and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Teatro Colón and Teatro Avenida in Buenos Aires, Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, Volksoper in Vienna, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Opéra de Strasbourg, Opéra de Bordeaux, Opéra de Nice, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Opéra de Genève, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Nissay Theatre, Bunka Kaikan and New National Theatre in Tokyo, Hong-Kong Opera Festival, Salzburg Festival, Ravenna Festival, Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, Teatro Arriaga and Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro Real in Madrid.
LATEST PRODUCTIONS: La corte del faraón and La Del Manojo de Rosas at Teatro de La Zarzuela in Madrid; Le nozze di Figaro at Teatro Regio di Torino; Lady be good at Teatro Massimo di Palermo; Don Gil de Alcalà in Santander and in Oviedo; Massnet’s Manon in Tenerife; Il viaggio a Reims in Santiago de Chile; Il turco in Italia at Opéra de Lausanne; Massnet’s Manon in Oviedo Rigoletto at New National Theatre Tokyo; I puritani in Bilbao; Rossini’s Otello, at Opera Philadelphia and at Opéra Royal de Wallonie de Liège; L’elisir d’amore at Teatro Colon Buenos Aires; Lucrezia Borgia at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Il pirata at Teatro Real in Madrid and at Teatro alla Scala.
FORTHCOMING PROJECTS: Carmen at Opera Carlo Felice di Genova and at Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla; Werther in Santiago de Chile; La traviata at Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires; Rigoletto at ABAO Bilbao; Il barbiere di Siviglia at San Francisco Opera.
