Verdi Aida (sets) Welsh National Opera, May 2008 Director John Caird Costumes Emma Ryott Lighting Paul Pyant

Reviews 

... in the programme Caird writes intriguingly about the context of Victorian Orientalism and "a dark and labyrinthine world of passages, tunnels and galleries, a world of secrets, mysteries and betrayals".The designers have imaginatively picked up on these ideas - Yannis Thavoris's handsome set represents a tiered bear-pit, surfaced with tarred wood... (Telegraph)

The intimate dialogue scenes that are the core of Verdi's final study in the conflict between public duty and private passion work superbly in a space that can be shrunk downwards by lighting. (Independent)

Caird and his designers, Yannis Thavoris (set) and Paul Pyant (lighting), start well with a simple façade incorporating terraced gallery and labyrinthine doors: just about large enough to accommodate Aida’s grand-operatic pretensions, sufficiently focused to frame the chamber duets. The visual imagery, especially for Emma Ryott’s richly hued costumes, suggests a 19th-century view of the near east, a world of burnished gold, exotic ornaments and savage theism. (Financial Times)