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Biography

Widely recognised as the leading music-theatre director of his generation in South Africa, Matthew Wild is now increasingly sought-after as a stage director in Europe, where his productions are earning praise for their conceptual intelligence, visual bravura, musicality and “unquestionably brilliant Personenregie" (NZZ). Mr. Wild’s productions have won acclaim in major opera houses in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, and have been seen on all the important stages of his homeland, where he is a two-time Fleur du Cap Award winner. From 2015 to 2021, he was the Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera.

Mr. Wild begins the 2022-23 season with two new productions in Cape Town: Weill and Brecht’s Die sieben Todsünden (in a new Afrikaans translation) for the Toyota US Woordfees, and Handel’s Alcina for Cape Town Opera, before he returns to the Tiroler Festspiele Erl to stage Humperdinck's Königskinder.

In the 2023/24 season, Wild makes his debut at Opera Frankfurt with a new staging of Wagner's Tannhäuser, conducted by Thomas Guggeis. In addition he will bring Jonathan Larson's rock musical “Rent” onto the stage at Theater St. Gallen and return to Tiroler Festspiele Erl, this time to stage Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa.

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.
COVID-cancelled productions included Verdi's Macbeth for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Nono’s Intolleranza 1960, Mendelssohn’s Elias and Wagner’s Parsifal for Konzert Theater Bern, and The Turn of the Screw for Cape Town Opera.

Mr. Wild made his German debut with an acclaimed production of Katya Kabanova for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 2016, which was revived in 2017-18. Mozart's Don Giovanni and Puccini's La bòheme followed at Konzert Theater Bern. His many productions for Cape Town Opera include 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 with Boesmans’ Julie for NorrlandsOperan and Malmö Opera, Mr Wild studied Drama and English at the University of Cape Town, worked professionally as an actor and playwright, and developed his craft as a director of spoken theatre, ranging from new plays to Shakespearean comedy.

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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

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)