Achim Freyer made his LA Opera debut with Bach's Mass in B-minor in 2002, returning in 2003 for La Damnation de Faust. He studied painting before turning toward the theater, staging productions with numerous important theater companies including the Berliner Ensemble and the Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1982, he directed a production of Die Zauberflöte in Hamburg which made theater history and is to this day still celebrated by consistently sold out houses. He has interpreted the same work in Vienna, at the Salzburg Festival, at the Schwetzingen Festival and in Strasbourg at the Opéra National du Rhin. His many opera productions also include Der Freischütz in Stuttgart, Tristan und Isolde in Brussels, Turandot/Persephone in Venice, Haydn's L'Anima del Filosofo for the Schwetzingen Festival and Ariodante at the Frankfurt Opera. He also created a theatrical version of Verdi's Requiem for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. World premieres make up a large part of his body of work, including works by Helmut Lachenmann, Dieter Schnebel, Mauicio Kagel, Philip Glass, Erhard Grosskopf and Alvin Curran. The world premiere of Sciarrino's Macbeth at the Schwetzinger Festival was a particular success and was later performed in Frankfurt, Graz and New York. His most recent work includes the world premiere of Luca Francesconi's Ballata (Brussels), Salome (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Die Zauberflöte (Moscow, Warsaw), Médée and La Traviata (Mannheim), the world premiere of Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland (Munich) and Eugene Onegin (Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin). In 1992, he founded the Freyer Ensemble, an integral part of his large-scale opera and theater productions, with whom he has created more than 20 pieces for the theater.