Recognized as one of the leading opera directors of his generation, he was born in Johannesburg. He studied Music and Art History at the University of the Witwatersrand and piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His recent productions include Turandot (Teatro Massimo Palermo), Don Giovanni (Teatro Comunale di Bologna), Der fliegende Holländer (Göteborg Opera), Il Paese dei Campanelli (Festival della Valle d’Itria), Le nozze di Figaro (Teatro Comunale di Bologna), three different productions of La traviata (Teatro Comunale di Bologna / Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv / Opera North, UK), Pagliacci (Macerata Opera Festival), Alcina (Saarländisches Staatstheater), Eugene Onegin (Santa Fe Opera), Hänsel und Gretel (Cape Town Opera), The Turn of the Screw and Don Giovanni (Opera North, UK), The Love for Three Oranges (Opera Philadelphia), Rigoletto (Korea National Opera), Margherita d’Anjou and Crispino e la Comare (Festival della Valle d’Itria), Histoire du Soldat, Albert Herring and L’amour des trois oranges (all for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), La Cenerentola (Teatro Regio di Torino), Idomeneo (Teatro La Fenice), Anna Bolena (Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo), Roberto Devereux (Teatro Real Madrid), Tosca (Opera di Roma), Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro and Amadigi di Gaula (Central City Opera, Colorado), Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux (both for Welsh National Opera), and La Cenerentola (Malmö Opera). He also served as Artistic Director of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.