STEFANO PODA
Opera Director | Set-Costumes-Lighting Designer | Choreographer

In his search for aesthetic and conceptual unity, Stefano Poda always designs direction, choreography, sets, costumes, and lighting: his personal seal is founded on a visionary, multi-level imprint, balanced between ancient images and contemporary art. On stage he speaks his own language, immediately recognisable, erasing the barriers between different genres and disciplines, in order to create an all-embracing experience, a world of total art. His way of doing theatre is not a mere story-telling, but a plastic, holistic dimension, able to blend together design, architecture, sculpture, painting, music and dramaturgy.
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Stefano Poda’s worldwide career numbers since 1995 about one hundred productions, including: Tosca (2021), in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow; Nabucco at Colon of Buenos Aires (2020) and for the Korea National Opera (2021); Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (broadcast on France TV, 2019) and Rusalka (2022) at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Roméo et Juliette (2018) and Rheingold (2022) at the NCPA of Beijing; Alcina (2022), Norma (2021), Contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Ariodante (2016) and Lucia di Lammermoor (broadcast on ARTE TV, 2017) at the Opéra de Lausanne; Boris Godunov (2017) and Andrea Chénier (2015) at the Korea National Opera; Thaïs (2015), Fosca by Carlos Gomes and Titan (2016), a choreography on Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo (2016); L’Elisir d’Amore at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg (2016); Otello at the Hungarian State Opera of Budapest (2015); Tristan und Isolde conducted by Zubin Mehta for the opening of the 77th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival (2014); Il Trovatore at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athen Festival (2012, revival in 2017); Trittico by Puccini at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (2011); Leggenda by Alessandro Solbiati at the Teatro Regio di Torino (2011; DVD EMA Vinci Records); La Forza del Destino (2011) at the Teatro Regio di Parma (DVD Unitel C Major) and at the Festival Verdi (2014). His iconic production of Gounod’s Faust at the Teatro Regio Torino in 2015, a co-production of the Israeli Opera of Tel Aviv and the Lausanne Opera (DVD & Blu-Ray Unitel Classica, C Major) has been broadcast with great success in movie theatres across the world. This is true also for Puccini’s Turandot in 2018 (DVD C-major, streaming on Operavision) and Massenet’s Thaïs in 2008 (DVD & Blu-ray, RAI/Arthaus Musik) both staged at the Teatro Regio Torino and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Stefano Poda was awarded the prestigious “Prix Claude Rostand de la Critique Française” by the Professional Association of French Critics at the Opéra Comique in Paris, for Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, best opera production in 2019. He was invited as special guest to the PQ Prague Quadrennial 2019, the 14th edition of the largest international festival of theatre and stage design. In 2018, the Fifth International Experts Forum of the Stage Arts of Beijing was dedicated to "Stefano Poda, Opera Design as total Art Work" in an international symposium at the Forbidden City. In 2019 he was awarded the "Ombra della Sera” Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Arts, at the Roman Theatre of Volterra.