Clara Svärd

Biography

Clara Svärd will this season stage Händel’s Julius Caesar for the Royal Swedish Opera/the Young Opera with premiere in April. Her most recent work in opera includes Pride and Prejudice by Daniel Nelson/Sofia Fredén for Norrlandsoperan in 2024, and in 2023 she staged Mytomania by Paula af Malmborg Ward for the Göteborg Opera and was the choreographer for Andefabriken/The Ghost Factory for Vadstena Academy Summer Opera Festival, directed by Nils Spangenberg.

Clara Svärd has been active in the field of opera since the early 2000s. After dance studies at Balettakademien’s Professional School, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Choreography from Roehampton University in London and pursued physical theater training for opera singers with Willy Verkuil at the Dutch opera academy De Nieuwe Opera Academie. During her studies, she interned with director and opera/theater choreographer Stuart Hopps as well as with the Nederlands Dans Theater.

Clara began her career as an opera choreographer at Vadstena Academy 2005, establishing long-term collaborations with directors such as Elisabeth Linton and Nils Spangenberg and has been engaged as a choreographer for opera houses such as Göteborg Opera, Den Jyske Opera and the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.

Clara made her directorial debut in 2012 with Donizetti’s Enrico di Borgogna for Vadstena-Akademien, which was followed by productions in cooperation with conductor Olof Boman för Kongsberg Festspillenne i Kongsberg, Norway, where she staged Ernelinde, princess de Norvège by Philidor 2014 and Haydn’s Creation in 2015.

Clara got her breakthrough as a director in 2019 with Telemann’s Orpheus for Vadstena Summer Opera Festival and she returned to Vadstena in 2022 for Pollarolo’s Il colore fa la regina. The same year Clara directed Det Stora Oväsendet for Malmö Opera and Ceciliavesper for the Confidencen Opera & Music Festival.

Clara has collaborated with independent opera groups such as Den Andra Operan and Kamraterna as a director for performances, staged concerts, and public workshops. Most recently, she directed the project Caccini Revisited in 2023, a practical research project exploring La Liberazione di Ruggiero by Francesca Caccini, as well as the concert ...facciamo opera in 2024 with Ann Hallenberg, both for Den Andra Operan. Clara also directed the staged concert production of Himlens Hemlighet by Moses Pergament and Pär Lagerkvist for Kamraterna.

The importance of direction and choreography for the choir in an opera production is a central concern for Clara. Over the years, she has directed several staged choral works for church and amateur choirs, and she has collaborated extensively with choir conductors and church musicians.

Clara teaches movement training for opera students at institutions such as Stockholm Operastudio (formerly Operastudio 67) and the University College of Opera in Stockholm. Clara has directed numerous student productions and staged choral works.

March 2025

Co-owner and Artist Manager

Elisabeth Haglund

Voices from the press

"Clara Svärd is undoubtedly one of Sweden's finest opera directors. Her superpower lies in her musicality and deep understanding of human nature, paired with a choreographer's sense of cohesion and rhythm." Pride and Prejudice/NorrlandsOperan 2024

Gunilla Brodrej/Expressen 2024-02-05

"Norrlandsoperan delivers a real hit with Pride and Prejudice. Daniel Nelson's music creates a lively flow, and the emotions of the novel are transferred to the voices in a finely tuned ensemble performance." Pride and Prejudice/NorrlandsOperan 2024

Loretto Villalobos/Svenska Dagbladet 2024-02-04

"After the premiere of the opera Mytomania (October 8, 2023) at the Gothenburg Opera, we are both exhilarated by the multisensory experience we’ve just been part of. Let us begin with this: the creative team deserves to be mentioned first in the review and given the most attention, not reduced to a single sentence at the end, as is customary. So, here is our judgment:

Set and costume designer Marika Feinsilber, lighting designer Anna Wemmert, and director and choreographer Clara Svärd deliver a magnificent and endlessly captivating stage world. It resonates perfectly with the opera's themes of deceit and love, as well as the newly composed dramatic music. Music that neither of us would listen to for pleasure or gym motivation, but which, paired with the singing, powerfully cuts through the air in the opera hall." Mytomania/Malmborg-Ward/Gothenburg Opera, 2023)

Astrid von Rosen & Viveka Kjellmer, Scenography Journal, 2023-10-10

"Baroque Opera at Its Absolute Best"

"The Masked Love comes alive again after 300 years. It bursts with life—bewildering and enchanting. An opera filled with musical and dramatic joy." Il core fa la regina/Masked Love, Pollardo/Vadstena Academy, 2022

Lars H Jonsson, Corren, 2022-07-09

"How the Audience Forgets the Uncomfortable Benches"

"The Vadstena Academy has unearthed and revived a 325-year-old treasure from Venice. Gunilla Brodrej witnesses a playful and dynamic baroque opera by the obscure Carlo Francesco Pollardo."

"A more pretentious director might have gotten lost in psychological complexities, but Clara Svärd directs with humor, heart, and intelligence. The boundary between the pit and the stage dissolves.

Thanks to Svärd, the singers receive the best possible direction. Their movements are playful, exquisite, and grounded...Masked Love is nothing short of a triumph." Il core fa la regina / Masked Love, Pollardo/Vadstena Academy, 2022

Gunilla Brodrej, Expressen, 2022-07-09

Strikingly Excellent When Rare Baroque Opera Premieres"

"Orpheus" is an unusually varied and exceptionally beautiful opera production.

"It’s not often that opera makes you sweat in your seat, but that’s the only negative thing I can say about the Vadstena Academy’s Orpheus (1726). Brimming with spirit and elegance, it is so choreographically and visually perfected that I can hardly imagine Telemann's opera being staged any other way. A total fusion of music and stagecraft.

Speaking of fusion, it’s incredibly hot inside the auditorium at Vadstena Castle, but the production is as refreshing as a perfect breeze. Clara Svärd’s choreography and direction unify the narrative of the most toxic of all emotions: destructive jealousy. Yet, it delves deeper—perhaps this opera is about the will to love being stronger than the ability to actually do so. The audience isn’t spoon-fed this idea, thankfully. Instead, we are treated to a visual and musical package that ranks among the most stunning I have experienced on an opera stage." Orpheus, Telemann/Vadstena Academy, 2019

Gunilla Brodrej, Expressen, 2019-07-20

"Opera Review: Variety, Dynamism, and Beauty as Orpheus Takes the Stage at Vadstena Castle"

"Eurydice’s death scenes are perfect unions of choreography, costume, and music. They pierce the heart, even when you know exactly what’s about to happen," writes Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada-Noli about Vadstena Castle's production of Telemann’s Orpheus.

"Clara Svärd, both director and choreographer, crafts poetic formations of the performers on stage. At times, it feels like gazing at a classical painting. Eurydice’s death scenes are perfect moments where choreography, costume, and music converge, striking the heart despite their predictability. This is what defines a great myth." Orpheus, Telemann/Vadstena Academy, 2019