Opera – set and costume design

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Simon Rees

With an MA in English literature from Cambridge, Simon has taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. For a number of years he was dramaturg at Welsh National Opera working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. He lectures widely on opera, art history and literature.

Opera is an elaborate, even extravagant, art form. Simon Rees traces the arts associated with opera through surviving drawings, paintings, theatres and their scenery from the earliest beginnings in the 17th century to the present day, where artists such as John Piper, Sydney Nolan and David Hockney have thrived as theatre designers. He draws on his personal experience at the Welsh National Opera to support this lecture.

Caption: Don Giovanni Act2 set design, Prague, 1790s

The notes for this lecture can be downloaded here.

Below are photos of this lecture