General Commissioner
Scenographer and designer, Boris Kudlička was born on 5 December 1972 in Ružomberok, Slovakia. He studied set and costume design at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (1990 – 1996) and at the Minerva Academy of Arts in Groningen. In 1995 he joined the National Opera – Grand Theatre (Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa) in Poland as assistant to Andrzej Kreutz Majewski. Since 1996 he has created sets mostly for opera productions.
Boris Kudlička regularly cooperates with acclaimed European directors, such as Mariusz Treliński. Since 1999 they have staged several operas: Madama Butterfly (Puccini), King Roger (Szymanowski), Otello (Verdi), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Andrea Chénier (Giordano), La Bohème (Puccini), Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck), Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), Iolanta (Tchaikovsky), Aleko (Rakhmaninov), La Traviata (Verdi), Turandot (Puccini), most of them for the National Opera in Warsaw and for other major opera houses (Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Bratislava, Washington and Valencia). Some of hese productions have been presented at festivals in Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Baden Baden. With the American director Dale Duesing Kudlička made Il Viaggo a Reims (Rossini), The Rape of Lucrezia (Britten), Le contes d ́Hoffman (Offenbach) at the Frankfurt Opera, Medea (Cherubini) and St. John Passion (Bach) at the Nationale Reisopera in Enschede, Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) at the Bern Opera, L ́Étoile (Chabrier) at the State Opera Berlin. Britten ́s Death in Venice marked the start of his collaboration with Keith Warner, together they staged Lear (Reimann) and The Tempest (Adès) at the Frankfurt Opera and Simon Boccanegra (Verdi) at the Strasbourg Opera and Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart) at the National Opera in Warsaw.
Boris Kudlička ́s professional interests reach far beyond opera. He has also designed sets for several films – among them Between Strangers (together with his father Ján Kudlička ) in 2003, drama productions and concerts. Boris Kudlička and Andrzej Kreutz Majewski designed the Polish pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hannover. Exhibitions occupy an important place in Boris Kudlička ́s work.
Boris Kudlička is recipient of several major awards. In 2005 he was honoured with the Polish Theatre Institute Award for scenography of the production Richard II. In 2006 he was awarded the Polish Order Gloria Artis for his artistic achievements by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
In Slovakia,he won the Dosky Award for best scenography for the ballet Rasputin in 2004 and for the opera Orfeo ed Euridice in 2008 and a year later the Tatra Banka Foundation Award for Art for the same production. Boris Kudlička also won a golden medal at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007 and in 2008 he was appointed General Commissioner of the Prague Quadrennial 2011.
At the Expo 2010 in Shanghai Boris Kudlička won (together with WWAArchitects) a silver medal for the exhibition design of the Polish pavilion.
www.kudlicka.info • pq@pq.cz
