Ursula Kudrna © Thomas Steinlechner
Ursula Kudrna was born in Vienna and studied at the local Academy of Fine Arts. Renowned for her evocative and visually striking costume designs, she has left an indelible mark on the international opera and theater scene.
In 2019, the "Opernwelt" critics' poll named Ursula Kudrna "Costume Designer of the Year," a distinction earned through her mesmerising fairy-tale and circus-inspired creations for Mozart’s "The Magic Flute" at the Salzburg Festival’s opening, as well as her Pieter Bruegel-inspired designs for Beat Furrer’s "Violet Snow," directed by Claus Guth at the Berlin State Opera.
Her collaboration with Claus Guth has flourished across multiple productions, including "Makropulos" at the Berlin State Opera, "Turandot" at the Vienna State Opera, "Samson" at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and "Die Liebe der Danae" at the Bavarian State Opera.
Since 2003, Ursula Kudrna has crafted costumes for a prestigious roster of institutions, including the Berlin State Opera, Semper Oper Dresden, Komische Opera Berlin, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Zurich Opera House, Michailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Berliner Ensemble, Theater Bremen, State Theater Darmstadt, Oldenburg State Theater, Theater Basel, Concert Theater Bern, Cologne Opera, Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Easter Festival, State Theater Mainz, National Theater Weimar, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Volksbühne Berlin, and Maxim Gorki Theater.
Under the direction of Philipp Stölzl, she has designed costumes for productions such as "Orpheus in the Underworld," "The Flying Dutchman," "Il Trovatore," and "Turandot" at the Berlin State Opera, "Faust" and "Rienzi" at the Deutsche OperBerlin, "Die Fledermaus" at the Stuttgart State Opera, as well as "Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci" at the Salzburg Easter Festival and Semper Oper Dresden.
Working with director Lydia Steier, Ursula Kudrna designed costumes for "Giulio Cesare" at the Komische Oper Berlin, Händel’s "Jephtha" for the Potsdam Winter Opera, "Káťa Kabanová" and "Saul" at the Oldenburg State Theater, "Turandot" at the Cologne Opera, "A Dream of Armageddon" at the New National Theatre Tokyo, "Candide" at the Theater an der Wien, and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s "Thursday from Light" at Theater Basela production named "Performance of the Year" in "Opernwelt"'s 2016 critics' review.
Ursula Kudrna has also collaborated with director Jürgen Flimm on "Manon Lescaut" at the Michailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Berlin State Opera, and Rossini’s "Otello" and Salvatore Sciarrino’s "Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo" at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The latter was later presented at the Berlin State Opera in July 2018. Furthermore, she was responsible for the costume design in Flimm’s staging of Schumann’s "Scenes from Goethe’s Faust," which marked the grand reopening of the Berlin State Opera in October 2017.
With an extraordinary ability to weave historical references and contemporary aesthetics into her designs, Ursula Kudrna continues to shape the visual language of opera and theater on an international scale
