The 2024 Antonín Dvořák Prize Award Ceremony: Laureate Barrie Kosky

With one foot in the world of opera, the other in musicals, and an idealist’s belief in the power of theatre, Australian Barrie Kosky is one of today’s most sought after directors. He has the ability to draw out the pure essence of each piece and convey it radiantly to the public.

This year’s Antonín Dvořák Prize thus goes to this artist, whose masterful grasping of music extends to many of the most beautiful Czech operas: Rusalka, The Cunning Little Vixen, From the House of the Dead, and, most recently, Katya Kabanova. This latest production, conducted by Jakub Hrůša at the 2023 Salzburg Festival, has been nominated for the 2024 Gramophone Awards.

Kosky is a showman through and through, as the New York Times has written, yet one who also sees into the depth of things, utterly disregarding divisions between so-called high and low art. He served as the director of Komische Oper Berlin for ten years and currently works at the Bavarian State Opera and festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Bayreuth and Glyndebourne.

Kosky’s multifaceted personality is mirrored in the programme of the concert, which features Dvořák and Janáček in the first half and musical composer superstars Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein in the second.

Read more about the Antonín Dvořák Prize at the website of Dvořákova Praha

“…a showman through and through, who operates with a young idealist’s belief in the power of theater and a brazen disregard for divisions between so-called high and low art.”
(The New York Times)

Barrie Kosky is one of the most internationally sought-after stage directors of today, presenting productions all over the world. From 2012-2022, he was Intendant and Chefregisseur of the Komische Oper Berlin. By the end of his first season, the Komische Oper was voted "Opera House of the Year" by Opernwelt magazine, and Kosky has gone on to be credited with its eclectic programming of canonical Opera, Musical Theatre, and Weimar-era operetta.

His work at the Komische Oper Berlin has included The Magic Flute (co-directed with 1927), which has been seen by over a quarter of a million people on three continents, The Monteverdi Trilogy, Ball at the Savoy, Eugene Onegin, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Rigoletto, La Belle Hélène, Moses und Aron, La bohème, Rusalka, Le Grand Macabre, West Side Story, Pelléas et Mélisande, Semele, The Bassarids, Die Perlen von Cleopatra, Anatevka, and Candide among others.

Barrie Kosky has directed opera productions for the Bayerische Staatsoper (Die Schweigsame Frau, Agrippina, The Fiery Angel, Der Rosenkavalier, The Cunning Little Vixen), the Salzburg Festival (Orphée aux Enfers, Kat’a Kabanovna), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Saul, Les Dialogues des Carmélites), Festival Aix-en-Provence (Falstaff, Coq D’Or), Oper Frankfurt (Dido and Aeneas/Bluebeard's Castle, Salome, Carmen, Hercules), Opera Zurich (La Fanciulla del West, The Stigmatized, Macbeth, Boris Gudonov), Opéra National de Paris (Prince Igor), and Royal Opera House Covent Garden (The Nose, Agrippina, Carmen). 

He has also presented his productions at the Los Angeles Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Liceu Barcelona, Vienna Staatsoper, Het National Opera Amsterdam, English National Opera, Oper Graz, Theater Basel, Aalto Theater Essen, Staatsoper Hannover, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, and is a regular guest at the Edinburgh International Festival.

His awards include the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production for Castor and Pollux (English National Opera), Best Director at the 2014 International Opera Awards, Best Opera House (Komische Oper Berlin) at the 2015 International Opera Awards, the 2015 Gold Iffland Medal from the Berliner Theater Club, and the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera and Music Theatre for Saul (also nominated for a 2016 International Opera Award). In 2016, he was named Director of the Year by Opernwelt and in 2017, Kosky’s production of Saul won six out of seven categories at the Helpmann Awards, including Best Opera and Best Opera Direction. In 2018, Kosky’s Bayreuth Festival production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was announced as Production of the Year by Opernwelt. In 2020, he was the recipient of a Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, in recognition of his unique and influential contribution to the Australian Arts world.

Barrie will return to the Komische Oper Berlin as a guest, with several new productions in 23/24. Elsewhere this season, new productions include Die Fledermaus for Bayerische Staatsoper, Die Lustige Witwe for Opera Zurich, Il Trittico for Het National Opera Amsterdam, Cosi Fan Tutte for Wiener Staatsoper, and a new original double bill for Aix Festival. The upcoming seasons will also see Kosky return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for a new cycle of Wagner’s Ring, starting this season with Das Rheingold in September 2023.

Born in Melbourne, Kosky was Artistic Director of Gilgul Theatre Company (1990–1997), Artistic Director of the 1996 Adelaide Festival, and from 2001-2005, he was co-Artistic Director of the Vienna Schauspielhaus.