Born in Glasgow, David McVicar trained at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Productions include:
Così fan tutte, La traviata, Madama Butterfly, Der Rosenkavalier, Idomeneo (Scottish Opera); Anna Bolena, Il trovatore (Metropolitan Opera); La Clemenza Di Tito (Festival Aix En Provence); Tristan Und isolde (New National Theatre of Tokyo), Die Meistersinger Von Nurnber, Carmen, Giulio Cesare, La bohème (Glyndebourne); Adriana Lecouvreur, Salome, Aida, (ROH); Le nozze di Figaro; Faust, Die Zauberflöte, Rigoletto (ROH – all televised, latter nominated for an Olivier Award); L’incoronazione di Poppea (Copenhagen); Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca (ENO); Don Carlos (Frankfurt); Manon (Chicago; Barcelona); Don Giovanni (San Francisco; Belgium); Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Così fan tutte (Strasbourg); Carmen, Giulio Cesare, Orlando (Opéra de Lille); La clemenza di Tito (ENO; Copenhagen); L’incoronazione di Poppea, Semele (Champs-Elysées); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Les contes d’Hoffmann (Salzburg); Il trovatore, Billy Budd, Giulio Cesare (Chicago); Turn of the Screw (ENO; Marinsky); Macbeth (Kirov; ROH; Kennedy Center; Met); Agrippina (ENO; Frankfurt; La Monnaie; Champs-Elysées); The Rape of Lucretia (ENO/Aldeburgh – BBC TV, Olivier Award nomination); Alcina, Manon (ENO; New Zealand; Dallas; Houston); Der Rosenkavalier, Don Giovanni, Sweeney Todd, Hamlet, Il re pastore (Opera North); Tamerlano (Dusseldorf).

In 2011 he was awarded ‘Le Grand Prix de la Musique du Syndicat de la Critique’ for The Ring Cycle at Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg. Previously he has been awarded the South Bank Show Award for his productions of Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne, The Rape of Lucretia at ENO and The Turn of The Screw at ENO.