David Radok

“All my preparation and detailed directing notes are intended to give me the freedom to remain open during rehearsals. To feel secure enough to allow myself to be surprised and inspired by what happens in the moment.”

The Sten A Olsson Foundation’s Honorary Scholarship recipient for 2026, David Radok, made his debut as an opera director at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg in 1980. During the nearly 40 years that David Radok has worked in Gothenburg, his distinctive and artistically accomplished productions have played a significant part in establishing the city on the international opera scene. As a director, he has a rare ability to create multidimensional performing arts in which music, text, set design, lighting and ensemble work together as interconnected elements.

Motivation

David Radok was born in Prague in 1954. He moved to Gothenburg with his family in 1968 and made his debut as a self-taught director at Stora Teatern in 1980.

Between 1995 and 2019, Radok directed more than 20 productions at the Göteborg Opera. As the company’s resident director, his productions, ranging from Baroque opera and classics to contemporary works, came to define the artistic DNA of the Göteborg Opera. He frequently collaborated closely with, among others, set designer Lars-Åke Thessman, costume designer Karin Erskine and lighting designer Torkel Blomkvist.

For his outstanding work as an opera director in Gothenburg, and for a series of legendary productions through which, more than anyone else, he contributed over the course of 25 years to the Göteborg Opera’s international reputation and high artistic standards, David Radok is awarded the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture’s Honorary Scholarship for 2026.