He graduated from the DirectionDepartment of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS (Joseph Raihelgauz’s class, 2012). He started his theatrical career at the Novaya Opera where he worked as an assistant director and interpreter in 2005 to 2009. In 2006, he was a trainee director in Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Germany). In 2007–2010 he worked in the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre.
He founded an opera studio, The Moscow Youth Opera House in the Victor Popov Choral Art Academy (2007),where he directed Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Gavrilin’s Perezvony and Rachmaninoff’s Aleko. In 2010–2012 he was a director at the Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre, where he staged Gavrilin’s Russian Notebook and Kobekin’s The Jester and the King. He was an acting technique teacher for the Young Artists Opera Program at the Bolshoi Theatre (2011–2012).
Since 2012, he has been collaborating with The Platform project. As part of the project he worked on the world premiere of a production of Manotskov’s Nicodemus Passion (2013). Denis Azarov has produced performances at various theatres such as the Gogol Centre (Vvedensky’s Christmas Tree at the Ivanovs and Mavromatis’ The Milk),the Dramaturgy and Directing Centre (Vorozhbit’s Viy. Docudrama),the Yermolova Theatre (Pecheykin’s Romeo and Juliet. Edition based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, Erdman’s The Suicide),the Meyerhold Centre (From theLife of Planets to Nesterov’s music),the Khitrovkacultural centre (The Lower Depths based on Gorky’s play) and the Open Stageproject (Pecheykin’s Public Recitation and Ruslan and Lyudmila. Concert based on Pushkin’s poem). Besides, he was a resident of the Blackbox experimental programme in the Meyerhold Centre (2013).
In 2014–2016 he was a director at the Volkov Drama Theatre (Yaroslavl),where he directed productions of Ionesco’s and Daniil Kharms’ Délire à deux (the longlist of the Golden Mask Award); Yerofeyev’s Moscow-Petushki; Ostrovsky’s The Storm (the longlist of the Golden Mask Award) and Gogol’s The Government Inspector. Besides, in Helikon-opera he directed the world premiere of Sergunin’s opera Doctor Haass (2016) which was nominated to the Golden Mask Russian Theatre Award in 6 categories, including The Best Director’s Work.
As an assistant director Denis Azarov worked at Serebrennikov’s productions of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel in the Bolshoi Theatre and Neuwirth’s American Lulu in the Komische Oper Berlin.
Awards and Honours:
- Prize-winner of the Support of the Theatrical Initiatives at the Theatre of Nations
- Grant-holder of the Culture Ministry of Russia
Productions:
Puccini's Madama Butterfly – Stage Director
Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg – Stage Director