He was educated at the University of Oxford, where he directed a production of Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” in 1977. A few years before, Mr. Audi had led a group that purchased an early-19th-century building in the Islington neighborhood of London that, over its varied history, had housed a display of Egyptian mummies and served as a music hall, a Salvation Army facility and a factory that made carnival novelties.
When Audi discovered it, it was in disrepair. But he sees it as a potential for a show venue, and he leads the fundraising effort to renovate it and reopen it because it has hundreds of seats. (He later linked his interest in reusing anomaly structures with his interest in growing up in Lebanon, a country lacking theaters.)
By the 1980s, Almeida built her hip reputation and promoted early promotion with local and touring work, thus providing promotion to the careers of today’s famous artists, such as Robert Wilson, Robert Lepage, Phelim McDermott, Deborah Warner and Simon McBurney. Almeida International Contemporary Music Festival becomes the host of new operas and commissioned operas.
Since 1988, during his tenure at the Dutch State Opera, the house has also become a hotbed for committees and progressive layoffs, including collaborations with visual artists such as Anish Kapoor and Georg Baselitz. There Mr. Audi directed the Netherlands to make the first full cycle of “rings” and Montverdi opera.
“The thing about Pierre is that it’s not a traditional old-fashioned opera,” said opera manager Matthew Epstein. “It’s a repertoire extension backwards – Handel and Monteverdi, who directed and moved forward – known for it, moving forward to so many modern operas.”
Mr. Audi’s wife, artist Marieke Peeters, survived. His children Alexander and Sophia; his brother Paul Audi; and his sister Sherine Audi.
