Curriculum Vitae

Life, education & art

The opera director Regina Heer, born and raised in Winterthur, completed a traineeship in directing and dramaturgy at the Zurich Opera House after graduating from the PHZ (Zurich University of Teacher Education). This was followed by permanent engagements as assistant opera director/evening stage manager, which took her away from Zurich after two seasons to the theatres of Lucerne, Bern, the Opéra de Nice and for a stage at the Metropolitan Opera New York. In 1995, she ventured into freelance work.
Regina Heer produces operas, staged recitals and devises her own interdisciplinary music theatre projects. She has also staged classics such as "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", "Die Zauberflöte", "La Traviata", Donizetti's "Regimentstochter" and "Cavalleria rusticana" for Oper Schloss Hallwyl and MUSIKTHEATERWIL.
She received further training in Berlin with Geraldine Baron (method acting), Keith Johnstone (improvisation) and at the Zurich University of the Arts (acting). In autumn 2002, she completed her postgraduate studies in cultural management at the University of Basel with a Master of Advanced Studies in Arts Management. Her Master's thesis "Der Kulturbusinessplan", written in a team with H. Hitz and S. Häsler, was published by hier+jetzt-Verlag in autumn 2005. As co-founder of kabel - Musikvermittlung für junge Ohren, she published the "Hörbox" with Regula Stibi in 2004. (www.kabel-musikvermittlung.ch)
She has lived in Basel with her husband, the pianist and composer Paul Suits, since 1991.

Teaching

"If the meaning of the theatre was only in entertainment, perhaps it would not be worth putting so much work into it. But theatre is the art of reflecting life."
Konstantin Stanislawsky's quote perfectly describes what fascinates Regina Heer about theatre work and motivates her teaching. Teaching how opera can be brought to life on stage in a sensual, shocking, surprising, funny, dramatic, comic and tragic way forms the core of her teaching activities.
Since 2005, she has been a lecturer for scenic opera teaching within the solo singing program at the Basel University of Music. In 2011, she was also appointed to the same position at the Lucerne University of Music.
Regina Heer began her teaching career in 1996 at the AMS of the Basel Music Academy and in 1997 at the Zurich Conservatory (MKZ) with the Opera Workshop, an opera course for amateurs and professionals, which she ran for two decades.
During her teaching career, she staged operas at various universities, including works by Dove, Mozart, Ravel, Stravinsky, Suits and Weill. In 2004, together with pianist Corina Gieré, she founded Operella - the pocket opera, which sees itself as a support model for young singers between graduation and their first engagements in professional theatres. (https://www.ateliertheater-meilen.ch -> Operella)