Stefano Poda, a director, set-costume-lighting designer and choreographer was born in Italy.
In his search for aesthetic and conceptual unity, Stefano Poda always combines direction, choreography, sets, costumes and lightning: 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.
Stefano Poda was awarded the prestigious “Prix Claude Rostand de la Critique Française” for best opera production for Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse (2019) and the 43rd “Franco Abbiati” Music Critics Award by the National Association of Italian Music for La Juive, (direction, sets, costumes, lights, choreography) at the Teatro Regio of Turin, best opera production 2023.
Stefano Poda’s worldwide career numbers about one hundred productions. His best-known works include: Verdi’s Aida for the Centenary Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2023, worldwide broadcast, with sold out box office records and revival in 2024 and 2025; the inauguration of Verona Opera Festival 2025 with the new production of Nabucco; in 2024, a new production of Wagner’s Rheingold, for the first time at the NCPA of Beijing; at ROF Rossini Opera Festival 2023 with the first modern performance of Eduardo e Cristina; Enescu’s Oedipe at the George Enescu Festival 2023.; Tosca (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow; Dvořák’s Rusalka for the opening season at the Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse (co-production with The Israeli Opera); Alcina (2022 · broadcast on ARTE TV) and Norma (2023) both at Opéra de Lausanne; different new productions of Nabucco, for the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires (2022), for the reopening of the National Theatre of Korea (KNO, 2021, 2023) and for the Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse, 2024 (co-production with Lausanne); Les Contes d’Hoffmann (coproduction Opéra de Lausanne/Tel Aviv Israeli Opera/ROW Opéra Royal de Wallonie/State Theatre am Gärtnerplatz in Munich); Roméo et Juliette (2018) at NCPA of Beijing; Ariodante (2016) and Lucia di Lammermoor (2017, broadcast on ARTE TV) at Opéra de Lausanne; Boris Godunov (2017), and Andrea Chénier (2015) at Korea National Opera; Tristan und Isolde conducted by Zubin Mehta for the opening of the 77th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival (2014). His iconic production of Gounod’s Faust at 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) had been broadcast with great success in movie theatres across the world. This is true also for Puccini’s Turandot in 2018 (DVD Unitel Classica/C Major, streaming on Operavision) and Massenet’s Thaïs in 2008 (DVD & Blu-ray, RAI/Arthaus Musik) both staged at Teatro Regio Torino.
Stefano Poda received the 2023 Visconti Award from the MATIF/Fondazione Visconti. 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 in Beijing was dedicated to “Stefano Poda, Opera Design as total Art Work” at the Forbidden City. In 2019 he received the “Ombra della Sera” Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Arts at the Roman Theatre of Volterra.
At the Israeli Opera, he created:
Rusalka (2024)
Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2022)
Faust (2017)
