Trained in Paris with the theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, he received a job in 1969 as an assistant at the HamburgThalia Theatre. In a surprise, he took over in 1985 after the resignation of Peter Stein at the Schaubühne in Berlin. He also worked as a producer of both plays and operas at the Salzburg Festival, and in 1985 as a director at the Vienna Festival.
He was the director of the most recent version of Tosca, by Puccini, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Both the opera, as well as the director, were greeted by loud boos on opening night, 21 September 2009. The reception was generally negative. James Levine, the music director at the Metropolitan Opera likened the production to a 'Hitchcock movie' and the cultural critic for the New York Times, Charles McGrath, felt that the new production was a part of Gelb's mission to transform the Met by emphasizing theatricality.
In an interview after the premier of Marc-André Dalbavie's opera Charlotte Salomon, Bondy was asked whether his being Jewish had anything to do with his having directed the production. "So I said to her this is a production about a Jewish artist...the subject is the story of Charlotte Salomon" said Bondy, who then walked out on the interviewer.
2003: Hercules by Handel (conducted by William Christie with Les Arts Florissants) at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Opéra National de Paris, Wiener Festwochen, De Nederlandse Opera
2005: Julie by Philippe Boesmans (libretto by Luc Bondy, after Miss Julie by Strindberg), at La Monnaie, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
2005: Idomeneo by Mozart (conducted by Daniel Harding), at Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris (2006)
2009: Tosca by Puccini (conducted by James Levine), at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City (2009); seen later in Munich and Milan
2009: libretto for Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne
2014: Charlotte Salomon (conducted by Marc-André Dalbavie), at the Salzburg Festival, 2014
Honors
Hans Reinhart-Ring 1997
Nestroy-Theaterpreis 2000, Best Director, "The Seagull"
