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The American opera, theatre and festival director Peter Sellars is one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the performing arts today. Sellars is known for his work in contemporary opera as well as ground-breaking interpretations of classic works. Whether it's reinventing Purcell, adding a dramatic twist to Bach's Passions or staging John Adams鈥檚 operas 鈥� 鈥淣ixon in China鈥�, 鈥淭he Death of Klinghoffer鈥� and 鈥淭he Gospel According to the Other Mary鈥�, Sellars's productions are always thought provoking and engaging, while often illuminating contemporary social and political issues.

With Sellars now in his "Director-in-Residence" position at English National Opera, Tom Service talks to him about the state of politics and race in the United States and how he sees the arts and music as central to change in society.聽 He discusses his collaborations with composers John Adams and Kaija Saariaho and conductor Simon Rattle and how he sees his work as a director as a fundamentally collaborative venture and insists his role is to 鈥渁sk really interesting people really interesting questions鈥�.聽

With regard to his staging of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin and at the Proms, Sellars talks movingly about how he inspired the chorus to find their own way into the music.聽 He also gives a glimpse of some of the new projects he鈥檒l be working on in the next few years 鈥� some of which are bound to be thought provoking 鈥� as he tells Tom 鈥渋f there鈥檚 no controversy then you have to check your vital statistics.鈥�

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