Tatjana Gürbaca, born in Berlin, lives in her hometown. She studied directing at the »Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler« and supplemented her musical, literary, and dance education with master classes. Tatjana Gürbaca is the last master student of Ruth Berghaus. Her professional journey began in Graz, where she worked as an assistant director from 1998 to 2001.
She was one of the finalists at the Ring Award Graz. Her directorial debut was Turandot at the Graz Opera in 2001. Since then, she has worked as a freelance artist. The stylistic range of her productions spans from Handel, Hasse, and Kraus to Ligeti, Reimann, and Sciarrino.
As a theater maker with a musical background, Tatjana Gürbaca effortlessly transposes historical themes and conflicts into the present. Staying true to the texts, she finds ways to bring them into the here and now.
Tatjana Gürbaca has worked all over Europe. She directed Così fan tutte in Lucerne, Munich, Cologne, and Prague, Mazeppa, Eugen Onegin, Der fliegende Holländer, and Parsifal at the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Lohengrin, Freischütz, and Simon Boccanegra in Essen, Die tote Stadt and Braunfels' Jeanne d'Arc in Cologne, La traviata in Oslo and Amsterdam, Rigoletto, Aida, Zauberflöte, Le Grand Macabre, and Werther at the Opernhaus Zürich, Jenufa and Kátja Kabanová at the Opernhaus Genf and at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Ulisse in Frankfurt, Capriccio and Alcina at the Theater an der Wien, and a reworked Ring des Nibelungen trilogy at the same venue, which focused on the destinies of the «second generation,« featuring Hagen, Siegfried, and Brünnhilde. In the current season, she has Fausto in Essen, La fanciulla del West in Lyon, and La Juive in Frankfurt planned.
She was named Director of the Year by OPERNWELT magazine for her work on Parsifal in Antwerp in 2013.