Sir David McVicar is the original director for HGO’s 2026 production of Faust. He was also the original director for HGO’s Manon (2002) and Elektra (2018). McVicar was born in Glasgow and trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). He was knighted in 2012 for his services to opera and made Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. His productions staged across the U.K. include The Marriage of Figaro, Salome, Adriana Lecouvreur, Aida, Les Troyens, and Death in Venice (Royal Ballet and Opera); Der Rosenkavalier, The Turn of the Screw, and Médée (English National Opera); and Giulio Cesare, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and The Abduction from the Seraglio (Glyndebourne Festival). His Scottish Opera credits include Il trittico, Falstaff, Pelléas and Mélisande, The Rake’s Progress, Così fan tutte, La traviata, Madame Butterfly, Der Rosenkavalier, and Idomeneo. He has worked extensively in Europe including at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris Opera, Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Royal Danish Opera House, the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg festivals, and La Scala, Milan, where he is directing a new Ring cycle. Elsewhere, he has directed productions at the Metropolitan Opera, including Fedora, Medea, Don Carlo (also Lyric Opera Chicago), Anna Bolena, Il trovatore, Maria Stuarda, Giulio Cesare, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Roberto Devereux, Tosca, and Norma; LOC; San Francisco Opera; Santa Fe Opera; Canadian Opera Company; and Opera Australia.