Argentinian-italian Stage Director José Darío Innella is a former Jette Parker Young Artist, at the Royal Opera House, London.

He is joining the Assistant Director’s staff at Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden starting Season 2022-23.

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, he graduated as a Stage Director from the Teatro Colón School of Opera. He also studied Set & Costume Design at the Set Design College of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and Film and TV integral production at CineCIC (Cinematographic Investigation Centre) in Buenos Aires. He has attended acting, directing, set, lighting and costume design, voice, dance, piano, and stage fighting classes in Mendoza, Buenos Aires, London and New York.

Acted in several theatrical shows: Yerma (Lorca), De Pies y Manos (Cossa), De Actores y Otras Alimañas, o sía siempre y cuando la Tere se quede a dormir, and others. Also acted in operas: The Medium, Tobi (Menott); La Serva Padrona, Vespone (Pergolesi) and Hin und Züruck, Tante Emma (Hindemith) among other operas. He performed in several theatres in Argentna, among them the Experimental Center of the Teatro Colón, Teatro Cervantes and Teatro Margarita Xirgu. He has directed also several theatre productons, more recently Oceanía, by Francisco Ortiz, in Buenos Aires, Argentna.

He was Production Designer and Art Director on many short films, among others: Hell’s Kitchen, by Lucas Santa Ana, El viaje, by Camilo Guterrez and El Limón Verde, by Fernando Daneri with which he participated on many festivals, like the 16th Marató de Cinema Fantastic de Terror in Barcelona and in Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre 2004.

At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was Assistant Director for Don Carlo (Verdi, directed by Nicholas Hytner), Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss, directed by John Schlesinger), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky, directed by Robert Lapage), Powder Her Face (Adés, directed by Carlos Wagner), Tamerlano (Handel, directed by Graham Vick) and Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart, directed by David McVicar); at Teatro Real, Madrid, was Assistant Director for La Bohème (Puccini, directed by Richard Jones), Die Zauberlföte (Mozart, directed by Barrie Kosky) and Don Giovanni (Mozart, directed by Claus Guth); at the Teatro Liceu, Barcelona, was Assistant Director for Rodelinda (Händel, directed by Claus Guth); at the Opéra National de Montpellier was Revival Director for Werther (Massenet, directed by Bruno Ravella); at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, was Associate Director for Aída (Verdi, directed by Stathis Livathinos), production he will soon revive for the Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv, Israel. At the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, was Assistant Director and later Revival Director for Cosí fan Tutte (Mozart, directed by Vincent Huguet) and is currently Assistant Director for their new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen (Wagner, director Dmitri Tcherniakov). 

In 2009, directed The Truth About Love, a little less than fate, a fully staged dramatic show based on three song cycles byBritten, Schumann and Ebel at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre.

In 2010 he directed the Summer Performance featuring excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier, Capriccio, Die Schweigsame, Frau, Intermezzo (R. Strauss), Der Zigeunerbaron, Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss II), La Belle Hélène (Offenbach) and Naughty Marietta (Herbert) in the Royal Opera House’s Main Auditorium.

He made his Stage Director debut with Cosí fan Tutte (Mozart), conducted by Dante Ranieri, also designing the costumes. Since then, he had an intense activity, directing several operas, operettas and zarzuelas, including La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aída (Verdi), Alcina (Händel), L’Italiana in Algeri, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Cosí Fan Tutte (Mozart), L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale (Donizett), La Voix Humaine (Poulenc), Carmen (Bizet), I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni), La Bohème, Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Il Maestro di Musica, Il Matrimonio Segreto (Cimarosa), Master Peter’s Puppet Show (de Falla), Die Lustige Witwe (Lehàr), Die Fledermaus (J.Strauss), Marina (Arrieta), La Leyenda del Beso, La del Soto del Parral (Soutullo/Vert), Luisa Fernanda (Torroba), El Barberillo de Lavapiés (Barbieri), El dúo de La Africana (Caballero), La Rosa del Azafrán (Guerrero), El Asombro de Damasco (Luna) and Doña Francisquita (Vives) in Buenos Aires and other Argentinian cities, including the Teatro Colón Chamber Opera, Teatro Colón’s Experimental Center and Teatro Avenida. Abroad, he directed at the Teatro Pérez Galdós, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Teatro Romea, Murcia, Teatro Melico Salazar, San José de Costa Rica, Medellín Metropolitan Theatre and elswhere.