The Theaterpreis DER FAUST has announced its 2024 winners with Asmik Grigorian and Ingo Kerkhof taking home the opera awards.

Grigorian won the award for her Actor in Music Theater for her performance of “Salome” at the Staatsoper Hamburg while Ingo Kerkhof won Best Director in Music Theater for his production of Kurtág’s “Fin de partie” at the ⁩ Oper Dortmund.

According to the jury, Grigorian’s performance “captivated” and “Until the end of the opera, she embodies the entire emotional range of the title character in every second, both vocally and dramatically.”

Of Kerkhof’s work, the jury said, “He and his designer Anne Neuser placed the audience directly on the stage, directly into the action of the singers performing. In contrast, he arranged the orchestra in the auditorium, where, under the sensational direction of Johannes Kalitzke, it did not become an acoustic wall between the audience and the scene, but was able to spread the entire range from delicate to eruptive sounds. With the highest possible precision in the direction of the people and the acoustic depth of the gigantic orchestra, the audience is drawn directly into the opera and does not experience the drama and music as separate levels, but both equally intensely.”

Grigorian perform “Salome” in Hamburg in 2023 while “Fin de Partie” was performed in May 2024.