Johan Simons the Opéra Bastille in 2006 and Mozart's Il Seraglio at the De Nederlandse Opera in 2008. Simons was artistic director of the Münchner Kammerspiele since 2010. He is the director of the Ruhrtriennale from 2015 to 2017. Simon raised concerns by directing a play in Austria called "Die Neger" ("The Negroes") using blackface against protests and accusations of racism in 2015 Johan Simons Johan Simons (born 1 September 1946) is a Dutch theatre director. Simons received his education at the Rotterdam Dance Academy and the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also taught directing in Maastricht for a number of
Seraglio Seraglio A seraglio ( or ) or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in an Ottoman household. The term "harem" is a generic term for domestic spaces reserved for women in a Muslim family, which can also refer to the women themselves. The Ottoman imperial harem was known in Ottoman Turkish as "Harem-i Hümâyûn". The etymology of this Italian word is unclear. The Italian Treccani dictionary gives two derivations: one from Turkish "saray", from Persian "sarai" (), meaning "palace", or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or