Matthew Wild

Matthew Wild is a South African theatre director and stage director, especially of opera. He was artistic director of the Cape Town Opera from 2015 to 2021. Wild works internationally, directing Boesmans' Julie at NorrlandsOperan and the Malmö Opera in 2009, the world premiere of Philip Miller's Between a Rock and a Hard Place at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2013, Janáček's Káťa Kabanová at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 2016, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the Theater an der Wien in 2019, and Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Oper Frankfurt in 2024.

Career Born in South Africa, Wild studied drama and English studies at the University of Cape Town. His first direction was in 2000 a work he had written while still studying. He directed contemporary plays including Brent Palmer's Witnesses, John van der Ruit's Crooked, Dalliances by Pieter Jacobs, Brett Goldin's Bad Apple, Nhlanhla Mavundla's A Man and a Dog and Nicholas Spagnoletti's Special Thanks to Guests from Afar. He first directed a work by Shakespeare in 2012, staging The Comedy of Errors at the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, earning him a Fleur du Cap nomination as best director.