Biography
Since the start of the 2025/26 season, Boris Kudlička has been general director of the Polish National Opera and Ballet in Warsaw. He studied set design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and the Academie Minerva in Groningen. In 1995, he joined the Polish National Opera, where he first worked as an assistant to the designer Andrzej Kreutz-Majewski, then as the chief set designer, and since 1996 he has collaborated with the company as a freelancer, mainly creating sets for opera productions. His sceneries are minimalistic, applying unconventional materials and inspired by fine arts and film. Since 1999, he has regularly worked with Mariusz Treliński, and also collaborated with other stage directors, including Keith Warner, Amon Miyamoto, Dale Duesing and Sláva Daubnerová. He has designed sets for the Met in New York, the opera houses in Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Dresden, the Royal Opera in London, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Wiener Staatsoper, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Theater an der Wien, as well as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, etc. In Prague, Kudlička has designed the sets for the ballet My Country (State Opera Prague) and for the operas The Bartered Bride, Salome, Elektra, Norma, L'amour des trois oranges and Lolita (National Theatre Opera and State Opera). Besides opera, Boris Kudlička has worked on Poland’s pavilions at the EXPOs in Hanover and Shanghai, and numerous museum and exhibition projects (Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Żelazowa Wola, National Museum in Warsaw, Venice Biennales in 2017 and 2024). Furthermore, he has devoted to architecture and interior design. His Boris Kudlička and Partners studio operates in Poland, Switzerland, Qatar and Malta. He has received multiple coveted accolades, including the Gloria Artis Gold Medal (2025), two Gold Medals at the Prague Quadriennal (2007, 2015), Slovakia’s Dosky theatre award, a nomination for the International Opera Award (2023), etc. In 2014, he obtained a doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.