“Coming soon: Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, staged by Benjamin Prins, who already demonstrated this season with Les Contes d’Hoffmann what enormous talent he possesses.”
Opernwelt, J. Otten, 2026

Since 2022, I have served as Director of Opera (Operndirektor) and principal Stage Director at Theater Nordhausen in Germany. In this position, I oversee artistic planning, casting and strategic development while fostering a collaborative culture across artistic, technical and administrative departments. For me, leadership means creating the conditions in which artists can take risks and audiences feel genuinely addressed. Opera must not retreat into elitism; it must engage with society.
It is for me a space of research where beauty and narration arise from shared intelligence.

“The director Benjamin Prins succeeds in highlighting the magical aspect of the story while delivering an exciting dramatic twist in a coherent interpretation. ”
Der Opernfreud, J. Rüth

My productions, including Faust, Turandot, Don Giovanni, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Carmen, Roméo et Juliette, Idomeneo, Orphée aux Enfers, Werther, Fantasio, Così fan tutte and Bluebeard’s Castle, explore the tension between individual freedom and collective structures. Whether set in contemporary or historicized environments, my stagings place the singer-actor at the centre of the dramaturgy. 

This artistic vision is rooted in my early experiences. I was born in Lisieux in 1982 as the son of a nurse and a businessman and grew up in Yvetot, Normandy. At the age of ten, a music teacher (Jean-Joel Duchesne) invited me onto the stage of Rouen’s opera house, discovering Puccini, Mozart, Bizet, Offenbach, Berg, Britten, Fauré…
These early encounters with the repertoire shaped my understanding of opera not as an abstract art form, but as a living experience. Opera became for me a refuge. 

“There is no trace of petty bourgeois spirit or even conservatism”
Thüringer Allgemeine, M. Helbing”

At the same time, I began acting in a municipal theatre company working (Marie-Frédérique Dehays). There, I was introduced to the techniques of contemporary theatre-making, shaped by collective creation processes and inspired by the working philosophy of the Théâtre du Soleil.

“We must continue to closely follow what is happening in Nordhausen”.
Opernwelt, A. Heidenreich, 2025

A decisive turning point came during my exchange year in the United States (1999–2000). Performing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and working within the pragmatism of the American production system, I discovered theatre as a precise apparatus, a living machine requiring discipline, clarity and rhythm. This understanding of structure still shapes my rehearsal practice today.

“A superb and incisive work.”
Opéra Magazine, J. Pons 

Before fully committing to directing, I studied Law, Political Science and Linguistics at the University of Montpellier (2000–2005). I continue to approach each opera as a system of language, myth and power. I later trained in Musical Theatre Direction at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), in the class of Reto Nickler, graduating with honours in 2012. Vienna became my workshop, where I learned the Handwerk of opera: responsibility toward the score, structural precision and musical dramaturgy.

“What a striking metaphor for the irrevocability of destroyed ideals”.
Das Opernglas, J. Gahre

Between 2005 and 2012, I assisted leading directors including Olivier Py, Andreï Șerban, Sir David Pountney, Johannes Weigand, Carlos Wagner and Waut Koeken in more than sixty productions at major houses such as the Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, Volksoper Wien, La Fenice, the Munich Opera Festival and Shanghai Opera. These collaborations deeply shaped my artistic language.

“First-class entertainement.”
De Limburger, M. Wiche

In 2014, encouraged by Olivier Py, I founded Collectif Faille, dedicated to what I call a New Popular Musical Theatre. Out of this work emerged my concept of Smart Entertainment: opera that is intellectually rigorous yet emotionally immediate; aesthetically ambitious yet accessible; critical without cynicism. I search for a “third way” between sterile conservatism and superficial provocation.

“Benjamin Prins breathes new life into the opera of Nordhausen”
M. Wiesend, specialized blog

Fluent in French, German, English and Italian, and shaped by both French and German cultural traditions, I conceive opera as a European art of dialogue: between generations and aesthetics.

Through encounters, mediation projects and direct engagement with audiences, I actively work to open the doors of opera to those who have never felt addressed by it. 

My work moves deliberately between the poetic and the political. Precisely because the world is harsh, the stage must remain a space where we dare to feel, to  breathe, to question and to imagine otherwise.