German director Philipp Stölzl was born in Munich in 1967. Originally a stage designer and later a music video director, he now divides his professional time between cinema, opera and theatre. He studied at the Munich Kammerspiele and worked as an assistant to stage designers Jürgen Rose, Ezio Toffolutti, and Volker Pfüller, before moving to Berlin to work as a stage designer for directors including Armin Petras and Johanna Schall. Across film, he has worked with Austrian music film legends Dolezal and Rossacher as art director and writer, has directed music videos for Rammstein, Pavarotti, Madonna and Mick Jagger, and has directed films including Baby, Northface, Young Goethe in Love and The Expatriate. Other film highlights include his film adaptation of Noah Gordon's bestseller The Physician, a three-part retelling of Karl May’s Winnetou for television, the musical film I’ve Never Been to New York and the film adaptation of Stefan Zweig's Chess Story. He made his opera directing debut with Der Freischütz in Meiningen, and has since worked for the Salzburg Festival, Bregenz Festival, Theater Basel, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatsoper Berlin, Baden-Baden Festival, Dutch National Opera, Residenztheater Munich and the Burgtheater, Vienna. He makes his debut with The Royal Opera in the 2026/27 Season with Un ballo in maschera.