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.
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Artist Website
www.matthewwild.co.zaManagement
General ManagementArtist Manager

Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir
Artist Manager
ingunn@orlob.net
Mobil: +49-173-2 067 821
Press
Mazeppa / Tiroler Festspiele Erl /
15.07.24 / Salzburger Nachrichten
"Die Inszenierung von Matthew Wild hingegen könnte ob ihrer Professionalität und Klugheit mühelos auch an der Wiener Staatsoper, den Salzburger Festspielen oder an einem anderen Big House laufen und wäre Favorit für die jährlichen Opernpreise."
Mazeppa / Tiroler Festspiele Erl /
14.07.24 / Süddeutsche Zeitung
"Die Neuinszenierung von Tschaikowskys "Mazeppa" in Erl wird zu einem großartigen, tief schockierenden und ungemein aktuellen Opernereignis."
Mazeppa / Tiroler Festspiele Erl /
13.07.24 / BR Klassik
"Stehende Ovationen für eine so bluttriefende wie schonungslose Abrechnung mit Gewaltmenschen unserer Tage: Tschaikowski zeigt Aufstieg und Fall eines Karrieristen, der nur das Gesetz des Stärkeren kennt. Das ist in der Inszenierung des Südafrikaners Matthew Wild beklemmend aktuell und unbedingt sehenswert."
Mazeppa / Tiroler Festspiele Erl /
13.07.24 / nmz.de
"Atemverschlagend die Schlusssequenz, als das Bad mit bluttriefenden Wänden und allen Getöteten nochmals "vorbeifuhr". Beeindruckend konsequent hat Regisseur Wild dies bis ins aktuelle Detiail geformt, auch bis hin zum kleinen Spielkameraden der hinzuerfundenen Kind-Maria."
Tannhäuser / Oper Frankfurt / 29.04.24
/ BR Klassik
"Das ist spannend, zeitgemäß und musikalisch elektrisierend."
Tannhäuser / Oper Frankfurt /
29.04.24 / musik-heute.de
"Stehende Ovationen und lautstarker Jubel für alle Beteiligten beendeten am Sonntagabend eine außergewöhnliche "Tannhäuser"-Premiere an der Oper Frankfurt. Obwohl er eine Menge Pseudobiographisches hinzuerfindet und dabei zeitlich komplexe Ebenen einzieht, gelingt es dem südafrikanischen Regisseur Matthew Wild, sein Frankfurt-Debüt in einen Triumph zu verwandeln."
News

Shakespearean dystopia in Budapest
Following his immensely successful Tannhäuser (Oper Frankfurt) and Mazeppa (Tiroler Festspiele Erl) of last season, Matthew Wild can now present his first staging for the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. The new production of Verdi's Macbeth, "a strikingly acute psychological exploration of overwhelming guilt", will celebrate its premiere on February 22nd, 2025Set in a speculative, independent Scotland a few decades in the future (following an imagined collapse of the United Kingdom) where democracy has given way to authoritarian dynasty rule, the production is sure to be thought-provoking!
The set is designed by Sebastian Hannak, with whom Wild already collaborated once this season (Cage aux Folles in Kassel), and Principal Conductor Martin Rajna is conducting.
Further performance dates:
26/28 February & 02/05/07/09 March 2025

"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.
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