With his Teatro Real Madrid debut in May 2018, Michael Zlabinger made history as the youngest conductor of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, having previously assisted with productions at the Salzburg Festival (2012), Zurich Opera House (2013) and Teatro alla Scala di Milano (2015). This career milestone continued his consistent engagement with the opera of the 20th century, which had already been reflected in his work on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Vienna State Opera (2015), Salome at the Teatro Carlo Felice (2016) and Elektra at the opening of the new opera house in Athens (2017).
Most recently, he conducted a widely acclaimed production of Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
In the past two seasons, Michael Zlabinger conducted Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse at Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Staatskapelle Weimar at the Weilburger Schlosskonzerte Festival, other engagements led him to the Holland Festival together with the Klangforum Vienna, to Odense Symfoniorkester, to the Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence and to Teatro Carlo Felice. After a production of The Lighthouse at the Wiener Kammeroper which he created with his brothers Martin Zlabinger (set design) and Georg Zlabinger (director), he made his Theater an der Wien debut in January 2022 conducting Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.
Since May 2022, Michael Zlabinger is chief conductor of festival:philharmonie westfalen.