Haitham Assem Tantawy is an Egyptian-born, German opera and music theatre director, performer, and choreographer based in Germany. He began his artistic journey in an early age, studying piano and music theory through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In 2013, he earned a Master of Arts degree in performance practices and research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. In 2022 he earned his second Master of Arts degree in opera stage directing from the Karlsruhe University of Music under Professors Andrea Raabe and Stephan Mösch. Tantawy also holds a Bachelor of Science (2008) and a Master of Science (2010) degree in Engineering.

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​Tantawy’s artistic language stands out for its profound exploration of transcultural mysticism, mythology, and philosophy, crafting powerful stage imagery into emotionally charged performances that fuse in-depth character work with intense physicality. The resulting aesthetic experience is one that resonates deeply with a rich diversity of audience.

 

Tantawy has enriched his practice through numerous acting and physical theatre workshops in Poland and Italy, including training with Teatr Zar and the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski & Thomas Richards. From 2015 to 2016, he was a member of the internationally renowned, award-winning ensemble Song of the Goat Theatre in Poland, performing as an actor, dancer, and singer in the productions of Crazy God (based on Shakespeare's Hamlet) at Teatr Polski in Wroclaw, and Portraits of Cherry Orchard (based on Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard) at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw.

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Since 2014, Tantawy has been working as an acting coach and guest lecturer at various theatre academies and schools in Germany, Poland and Egypt. In 2015, he founded the SINAI Orchestral Theatre in Berlin, an independent company through which he created the publicly funded music theatre productions Preludes and Yusuf’s, serving as both director and composer. In 2019, at the Spieltriebe festival in Stadttheater Osnabrück, he directed the world premiere of the chamber opera Das Ebenbild & Der alte Traum by Kyungjin Lim and Tingting Pang, for which he also wrote the libretto. In that same year, he also worked as choreographer for Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Nederlandse Reisopera.

 

Between 2019 and 2022, while studying at the Karlsruhe University of Music, he participated in a masterclass with Peter Konwitschny, directing scenes from Puccini’s La Bohème. Later he also directed a reduced version of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. In 2020, he was awarded scholarships by both the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation and the Mozartfest Würzburg. That same year, he conceived and directed Wider das Verlöschen, his own Wagner-inspired opera piece for chamber ensemble and two singers, supported by the Richard Wagner Association in Karlsruhe and the Wagner Society of Santiago de Chile.

 

Since the 2022/23 season, Tantawy has been working at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf/Duisburg as a staff and assistant director, collaborating with renowned stage directors from the international opera scene. In 2025, he made his house debut as a stage director with the production of The Lighthouse (Der Leuchtturm) by Peter Maxwell Davies at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, earning widespread critical acclaim as a breathtaking “Gesamtkunstwerk.”