David Radok was born in Prague but emigrated with his family to Sweden in 1968 after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. After working in various theater professions, Radok began directing in 1980, primarily in Scandinavia. He has staged a wide range of operas, from early Baroque to contemporary works.
His collaboration with conductor Giancarlo Andretta began in 2003 with Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. In 1991, Radok worked in Prague for the first time, directing an adaptation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre. At the National Theatre in Prague, he has directed Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Berg’s Wozzeck.
Together with Josef Kroutvor, he wrote the libretto and drama for K. Description of a Struggle, which he also directed at the Göteborg Opera and at Divadlo Na zábradlí in Prague. In collaboration with artist and sculptor Ivan Theimer, he has worked on several operas, including Rossini’s The Barber of Seville for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
In 2008, he directed the world premiere of Havel’s play Leaving at the Archa Theatre in Prague. Furthermore, Radok has staged Janáček’s operas Jenůfa and From the House of the Dead multiple times in Scandinavia. At the Janáček Festival in Brno in 2014, he directed Janáček’s The Makropulos Case at the National Theatre in Brno, a collaboration with the Göteborg Opera, where the opera was performed in the 2015/16 season. As part of the collaboration between the Brno Opera and the Gothenburg Opera, he directed a double bill in 2019 featuring Martinů’s Juliette and Poulenc’s La voix humaine.
In 2015, he staged Schönberg’s Erwartung and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the Göteborg Opera, followed by a double bill of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden. In 2017, he directed a modern staging of Vivaldi’s Arsilda in collaboration with the orchestra Collegium 1704. In 2020, at the National Theatre in Brno, he directed the world premiere of Ivanović’s opera Monument, for which he also wrote the libretto. At the same theater, he has staged Britten’s Peter Grimes and Strauss’s Salome.