Barbora Horáková

Barbora Horáková, born in Prague, is living in Biel. She was well on her way to become an opera singer. She studied and graduated at the music academies of Basle and Geneva. As a member of the Swiss International Studio she won several prizes in competitions before she decided to change her path, focussing on opera direction and stage design.

Theory was replaced by practical work rapidly. Her work as an assistant director in Basle resulted in many contacts with artists of high profile. Hector Parra´s and Klaus Hendl´s opera Wilde, world premiered at the Schwetzingen Festival in 2015, started her collaboration with Calixto Bieito. Artistic respect and mutual trust led quickly to a series of major productions that Barbora Horáková transplaced from Munich, Oslo, Basle, London's ENO and Zurich to cities like Nuremberg, Venice, Bilbao, Leipzig and Madrid. The pieces in question were Britten’s War Requiem, From a Dead House, Tannhäuser and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten.

La voix humaine (Poulenc), premiered in Neuchâtel, marked Barbora Horáková's debut as a director in her own right. Her talent and handwriting was recognized and honored rapidly. She staged L'enfant et les sortilèges in Basle, Pflueger’s Romulus the Great in Neuchâtel, Pelléas et Mélisande in Oslo and Basle, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Bilbao, Un giorno di regno in Heidenheim, Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco in Lyon, Luisa Miller in Wuppertal and London’s ENO, Eötvös’ The Golden Dragon in Dresden, L´enfant et les sortilèges/Olympia (Ravel/Offenbach) in Vienna, Dark Spring, a world premiere, in Mannheim, Carmen in Hanover, and Rigoletto in Prague.

Barbora Horáková rapid success was underlined by two prestigious nominations. She was a finalist at the Ring Award Graz in 2017, and she was honored as the "Newcomer of the Year" by the International OPERA Awards in London 2018.

Read more about Missa in tempore belli directed by Barbora Horáková in season 2021-2022.