Yannis 

Thavoris

Stage 

Design

Handel Orlando Scottish Opera, February 2011 Director Harry Fehr Lighting Anna Watson Video Andrzej Goulding

videos

The production was also presented by the Welsh National Opera in September 2015 and by San Francisco Opera in May 2019.

Reviews for the San Francisco Opera Production 

The vague, Arcadian landscapes were mapped by scenic designer Yannis Thavoris into a revolving set comprised of several cleverly furnished hospital interiors populated by non-singing employees busily moving around. It is surprising how well all these transformations worked... **** (bachtrack)


In a brilliant move, this Scottish Opera production is set in a London military hospital during the Blitz; ...production designer Yannis Thavoris’s early ’40s-style revolving set is impressive. (Theatrius)


Yannis Thavoris' sleekly functional production design, Tim van't Hof's re-creation of Anna Watson's strong lighting, and Andrzej Goulding's highly effective projections help define the director's inventive blueprint and make better sense of a fairly murky libretto. (The Bay Area Reporter)


This staging, first seen in 2011 at Scottish Opera, worked seamlessly, putting the motivations of the five major characters in sharp relief. (Seen and Heard International)


Reviews for the Scottish Opera Production 

... a powerful piece of theatre... A hospital set can be drab, but Yannis Thavoris's designs add just enough period detail to keep things stylish... (Guardian)


... a fast-moving... and psychologically plausible interpretation which Fehr realises with admirable economy against the background of Yannis Thavoris’s ingeniously designed revolving set. (Telegraph)


Scottish Opera continues to stretch... trusting its audience to embrace the cool, clinical sweep of Yannis Thavoris's designs...With smooth transitions from scene to scene... Fehr's production glides briskly but sympathetically through the corridors of Thavoris's Art Deco hospital. (Independent on Sunday)


The hospital setting was finely achieved by Yannis Thavoris's elegant, deco designs with scene changes aided by a handy revolve. The elegant simplicity of the set was something of a contrast to the score, but none the worse for that. Sometimes simplicity is best and this was once case where that was certainly true. (Opera Britannia)


... Designer Yannis Thavoris has caught the 1940s well - the décor still shiny and new, the tea trolley for the staff and patients, the nurses' uniforms including the red-lined capes... (Opera Critic)


... Dramatically, too, it’s a winner... Cleverly designed by Yannis Thavoris, Harry Fehr’s production pushes the action forward to a London hospital just before the Blitz... a stimulating and well executed staging.... (The Stage)