Was born in Russia. Already during his school days he started to direct in Moscow, Tver and Odessa. He directed at the Salzburg Elizabet Buhne Theater in Austria and in 1990, at the age of 23, he established Helikon Opera, which gained the status of a State Municipal Theatre three years later. He directed, among others, Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), Die Fledermous (J. Strauss), Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk (Shostakovitch), Aida (Verdi), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach) and Lulu (Berg) in The Canadian Opera Company, Volksoper Vienna, Nationaltheatre Mannheim, the English National Opera and others and the Santander Festival, Spain, Verdi Festival in Strasbourg, France and Perelada Festival, Spain.
Bertman is an Honored Artist of Russia, and was awarded with the most prestigious theatre prize of Russia, The Golden Mask, as best opera director for Carmen (1998), The Tsar’s Bride (1999) and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2001). Among his latest productions are Falstaff (Verdi), My Fair lady (Loewe), Lulu (Berg), Yevgeny Onegin (Tchaikovsky), The Tsar’s Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) at Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre, Prince Igor (Borodin) at Istanbul Opera and Ballet Theatre, Pierre le Grand (Gretry) Vec Makropulos (Janacek), Les Dialogues des Carmelites (Poulenc), Norma (Bellini) at Santader Festival and La clemenza di Tito (Mozart) at the 50th Merida Opera Festival, Spain.

At the Israeli Opera he directed:
The Tsar’s Bride (2005)
Mazeppa (2005)
Carmen (2005)
Boris Godunov (2006)
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2006)

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2006)