The German director David Bösch studied at the Zurich University of the Arts. Following his debut with Romeo and Juliet at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, he worked for several years there and at the Schauspiel Essen. From 2013 to 2016 he was resident director at the Vienna Burgtheater; since then, he has worked for theatres including the Residenztheater in Munich, the Schauspielhaus Zurich, the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. Since 2024/25 he has been director of theatre at the Landestheater Linz.
His work as an opera director began in 2009 at the Bavarian State Opera with Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Work followed at various international opera houses, among them the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Dutch National Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Opéra National de Lyon and the Salzburg Festival. His recent productions include Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in Dresden and Zemlinsky’s Der Kreidekreis at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
In recent years he has increasingly focussed on work for young audiences, and has directed productions for both the analogue and the digital stage, including Gordon Kampe’s Spring doch at the Bavarian State Opera and Die weiße Rose at the Hamburg State Opera in co-operation with ZDF and arte. In 2023 he directed Grigori Frid’s graphic opera Tagebuch der Anne Frank in Hamburg.
In spoken drama he focusses on contemporary authors. The world premiere of Lisa Wentz’s Adern at the Burgtheater, which he directed, was nominated for three Nestroy Awards. In Linz he celebrated a brilliant season opening with Raphaela Bardutzky’s Fischer Fritz. The production received the Revival Award at the Heidelberger Stückemarkt.
As a playwright David Bösch has developed several works, among them Robin Hood and Keine Pinguine, nirgends, performed at the Nuremberg State Theatre. He directed the South Korean premiere of Urfaust at the Myeongdong Theatre in Seoul, at the invitation of the Goethe Institute. He was awarded the Young Director’s Award at the 2006 Salzburg Festival for Viel Lärm um nichts (Much Ado About Nothing). In 2018 he was nominated for an International Opera Award in the directing category.
In 2019 David Bösch was appointed professor of directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar.
