Andrejs Žagars was born in Latvia. He has been the General Director of the Latvian National Opera since 1996. His debut in directing opera was with Dir fliegende Hollander (Wagner) at the Dalhalla Festival in 2002. Later, he directed many operas in Latvia and in Moscow, Bologna, Essen, Wiesbaden, Savonlinna, Zagreb, Tallinn, Erfurt, Klagenfurt and others including The Demon (Rubinstein), Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky), Nabucco, Un ballo in maschera, Il trovatore (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet), Werther (Massenet), Prince Igor (Borodin), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) and many others.

At the Israeli Opera he directed:
La traviata (2013)