Sue Willmington
Guest of the OperaBiography
Born in Scarborough, Sue Willmington studied Fine Art at Maidstone College of Art and Theatre Design at the Motley Theatre Design School. As a costume designer she has cooperated with many theatres in Europe, USA, China and Israel. Her recent work for opera stages include Vaughan Williams’s Pilgrim’s Progress at English National Opera (directed by Yoshi Oida); Gounod’s Faust at Opera North, Leeds (Ran Braun & Rob Kearley); Bellini’s Norma at Opera North; Britten‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at English National Opera and the Stanislavsky Music Theatre in Moscow; Dallapiccola‘s Il Prigioniero and de Falla’s La vida breve at Greek National Opera in Athens and Opera North; Bizet’s Djamileh at Opéra National de Lyon and Opera North (all directed by Christopher Alden); Strauss‘Der Rosenkavalier at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; Gounod‘s Faust at Santa Fe Opera Festival and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Theater an der Wien (all directed by Stephen Lawless); Bizet’s Carmen at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing (Francesca Zambello) and Puccini’s La Rondine at Teatro La Fenice in Venice (Graham Vick). In spring 2014 she will cooperate with Theater Chemnitz on Bellini‘s Norma (co-production with Opera North) directed by Christopher Alden. With Alden she also cooperated on Janáček’s Makropulos Affair for English National Opera and Prague National Theatre (2008).
Sue Willmington has designed costumes for Opéra National de Paris, Bastille (Verdi: Il trovatore), Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg (Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex), Teatro Regio di Torino (R. Strauss: Capriccio), Opernhaus Zürich (R. Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau, Verdi: Don Carlos, Puccini: La fanciulla del West), Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Dallas Opera (Mozart: La clemenza di Tito) or Bregenzer Festspiele (Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, Beethoven: Fidelio, Verdi: Nabucco). She has also cooperated with drama theatres such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, the National Portrait Gallery, the Old Vic Theatre and the Almeida Theatre in London and the Zürich Schauspielhaus.
Update: June 2013