Hanna Wróblewska endorses Boris Kudlička for director of Polish National Opera
On April 4, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage announced the endorsement of the recommendation of the competition committee proposing Boris Kudlička as the new director of the Polish National Opera, following a meeting with Hanna Wróblewska. During the meeting, which was also attended by the current director of the theatre, Waldemar Dąbrowski, they discussed the candidate’s program and the future of one of Poland’s most important cultural institution.
Boris Kudlička is a set designer, architect, and designer. According to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, he has collaborated with the Polish National Opera since 1995. He is a graduate of the Department of Stage Design and Costume Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava and the Academy of Fine Arts in Groningen. Between 2011 and 2013, he was a lecturer at the Department of Stage Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
In 1999, Kudlička began collaborating with Mariusz Treliński, which led to the realization of sets for several opera productions, including “Madama Butterfly,” “King Roger,” “Otello,” “Don Giovanni,” “Eugene Onegin,” “Orpheus and Eurydice,” “Tristan and Isolde,” “Boris Godunov,” “La Traviata,” and “The Flying Dutchman.” He has devised set designs for the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House in London, Staatsoper Berlin, Washington Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Theater an der Wien, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, as well as the Royal Opera in Stockholm and Copenhagen.
His creative interests go beyond opera. A big part of his work are exhibition designs and architectural projects. Boris Kudlička’s has received a number of prizes and awards for his work. He has twice received the Dosky Slovak theatre award. He won two gold medals at the Prague Quadrennial (2007, 2015). In 2005, he was awarded the Bronze Medal, in 2015 the Silver Medal, and in 2025, the Gold Medal “Meritorious for Culture Gloria Artis.”
According to the Ministry, the next step will involve negotiating the terms of the contract following which Boris Kudlička is expected to take up the position in the fall of this year.