Biography

South African-born stage director Matthew Wild has established himself as one the most sought-after directors of his generation in Europe, where his productions are earning praise for their conceptual intelligence, visual bravura, musicality and “unquestionably brilliant Personenregie" (NZZ). In his breakthrough 2023-24 season, Mr. Wild’s staging of Wagner’s Tannhäuser for Oper Frankfurt was joint winner of Opernwelt’s Production of the Year Award, while his productions of Larson’s Rent at Konzert Theater St Gallen and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa for the Tiroler Festspiele Erl also won widespread acclaim.

Highlights of the 2022-23 season included new productions of Weill and Brecht’s Die sieben Todsünden and Handel’s Alcina in Cape Town, as well as a revival of his production of Humperdinck's Königskinder at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. In 2022, his critically-lauded staging of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess for the Theater an der Wien was nominated for four awards at the Österreichische Musiktheaterpreis, including Best Overall Production. Earlier productions in Europe included Mozart's Don Giovanni and Puccini's La bohème at Konzert Theater Bern, Katya Kabanova for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden,  and Boesmans’ Julie for NorrlandsOperan and Malmö Opera.

From 2015 to 2021, Mr Wild was the Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera. His many productions for the company included Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan tutte and Don Giovanni, Richard Strauss’ Salome, Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.
 
Equally accomplished as a director of musicals, Mr. Wild made his musical theatre debut at the Fugard Theatre in 2013 with O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, a production which smashed box office records over a two year run and won multiple awards. For the same theatre, he has since directed Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret (2015), Bernstein’s West Side Story (2015 – 2018), Styne's Funny Girl (2017) and Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots (2019). His European musical theatre debut followed in the same year with Kander and Ebb’s Chicago for the Staatstheater Braunschweig.
 
Before he made his opera directing debut in Sweden in 2009, Mr Wild studied Drama and English at the University of Cape Town, worked professionally as an actor and playwright, and worked as a director of spoken theatre, ranging from new plays to Shakespearean comedy.
 
 

Artist Website

www.matthewwild.co.za 

Management

General Management

Artist Manager
 
 
 
 
Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir
Artist Manager
ingunn@orlob.net 
Mobil: +49-173-2 067 821

Press

 

Tannhäuser / Oper Frankfurt / 29.04.24
/ BR Klassik
 

"Das ist spannend, zeitgemäß und musikalisch elektrisierend." 

News

"Performance of the Year"
We were delighted and proud to read the announcement of this year's ‘Performance of the Year’ by the ‘Opernwelt’ magazine! Five new productions share this title, including Matthew Wild's celebrated ‘Tannhäuser’ at the Frankfurt Opera, in which the BOM singers Andreas Bauer Kanabas (Landgraf Hermann) and Domen Krizaj (Wolfram von Eschenbach) shone with great role portraits.
In addition to Wild's staging, which “achieved the always anticipated - but rarely achieved - operatic ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk in the sense of Richard Wagner” (bachtrack.com), the production ‘The Greek Passion’ by Simon Stone from the 2023 Salzburg Festival, in which Scott Wilde appeared on stage as The Old Man, was also honoured.
The other three winners were ‘Moses und Aron’ in Bonn, ‘Queen of Spades’ in Lyon and ‘Die Passagierin’ in Munich.
Political power struggle in Tyirol!
The next big premiere with Matthew Wild is just around the corner! This time he has dedicated himself to Tchaikovsky's dismal, violence-steeped opera Mazeppa, which will celebrate its premiere under his direction on 12 July 2024 as part of the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl.
The staging emphasises the universal content of the opera and "resembles a parable about the disintegration of state order, as can currently be observed in many countries around the world". The turbulent 1990s in the former Soviet Union provide a visual reference, skilfully realised by set designer Herbert Murauer, with whom Wild recently collaborated on his immensely successful Tannhäuser in Frankfurt. The production is conducted by Karsten Januschke.
Performance dates: 12/19/21 July 2024

In addition, the festival audience can experience the revival of Brigitte Fassbaender's 'Ring', in which BOM colleagues Vincent Wolfsteiner (Siegfrieds) and Anthony Robin Schneider (Fafner, Hunding) will also be on stage this year. Erik Nielsen conducts.

Dates of the second Ring performance series:
23 July (Das Rheingold), 24 July (Die Walküre), 26 July (Siegfried) and 28 July (Götterdämmerung)
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