Constantine Costi is a director, writer working across opera, film, and theatre.
He was co-Artistic Director of Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz Theatre 2020 – 2023 and Artistic Director Advisor for The Lysicrates Foundation.
2025 sees Constantine directing a re-imagined version of Mozart’s DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL titled ABDUCTION (Victorian Opera), and he is the co-librettist and director for a new operatic centrepiece for Sydney Festival / LPD Productions, SIEGFRIED AND ROY: THE UNAUTHORISED OPERA.
Constantine’s documentary feature following the World Porridge Making Championship THE GOLDEN SPURTLE premiered to sold out screenings at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX Documentary Film Festival. He will also direct Monteverdi/Kats-Chernin’s IL RITORNO D’ULISSE IN PATRIA (Brisbane Conservatorium) and Offenbach’s ORPHÉE AUX ENFERS (NIDA/Sydney Conservatorium).
Previous highlights included a staging of Schoenberg’s PIERROT LUNAIRE (Berliner Philharmonic), Puccini’s IL TABARRO (Opera Australia), William Bolcom’s LONG-LOST LOVES (Musica Viva), IL TABARRO set outdoor aboard a historic light-ship (Sydney Festival / Victorian Opera).
Constantine’s acclaimed opera film A DELICATE FIRE for Pinchgut Opera, based on the madrigals of Barbara Strozzi, was awarded Best Australian Feature Film at the Sydney Women’s Film Festival, and the ATOM Award’s Best Experimental Film.
His revamped libretto and direction of Shostakovich’s operetta MOSCOW CHEREMUSHKI as MELBOURNE CHEREMUSHKI (Victorian Opera) earned him a Best Direction Green Room Award.
Constantine’s work explores the possibilities of the operatic form from outdoor spectacles LA TRAVIATA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR (Opera Australia), an immersive baroque opera experience for young audiences INFERNO (The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), and a “physics-defying spectacle” of Weill’s MAHAGAONNY SONGSPIEL AND THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS which included a 15-piece orchestra in a pub-theatre for 60 audience members.
Constantine directed KARAKORUM (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra) starring David Wenham, the award-winning production of BITTERSWEET OBSESSIONS, and MESSIAH which played to standing ovations and sell-out seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Constantine won The Berlin New Music Opera Award with The Opera Foundation for Young Australians where he worked with Komische Oper Berlin’s directing team on the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN directed by Barrie Kosky. He has assisted/revived the work of directors including Harry Kupfer, William Kentridge, Sir David McVicar, Damiano Michieletto, Chen Shi-Zheng, Barbara Weber, John Bell, Elijah Moshinsky, and Olivier Py.
Constantine is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Directing and holds a Bachelor of Communications (Media Arts and Production) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
