Biography
Michael Levine studied stage design at the Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London. He works in North America and Europe, designing sets and costumes for opera, theatre, film and ballet productions.
His designs for opera include Die Zauberflöte for Hungarian National Opera, Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser for Royal Opera House, Bernstein’s Candide for Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, ENO and Teatro alla Scala; L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Festival and Theater an der Wien; Elektra in Florence and Japan, Capriccio, Rameau’s Les Boréades, Bellini’s I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Dvořák’s Rusalka, Les contes d’Hoffmann and Nabucco for Paris Opera; Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin and Mefistofele for Metropolitan Opera; Die Frau ohne Schatten and Jérusalem for Vienna State Opera; Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Aix-en-Provence, ENO and Teatro alla Scala; La Bohème (Antwerp, Düsseldorf), Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites (De Nederlandse Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Madrid, Oviedo, Vienna, Antwerp, Chicago); Carmen and Rigoletto for De Nederlandse Opera; Gavin Bryars’s Dr. Ox’s Experiment and Massenet’s Cendrillon for ENO; Marc Blitzstein’s Regina for Scottish Opera. For Canadian Opera Company, Levine designed the productions of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, the double bill of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Schönberg’s Erwartung, Berg’s Wozzeck, Mozart’s Idomeneo and Wagner’s cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Among his works in other theatre genres are Bulgakov’s A Dog’s Heart for De Nederlandse Opera and ENO; Simon McBurney’s A Disappearing Number (Lawrence Olivier award), Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes for Complicité; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Beautiful Game for West End; Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Royal National Theatre; Nora Ephron’s Imaginary Friends for Barrymore Theatre, New York; Tectonic Plates for Ex Machina company; Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy for Royal Shakespeare Company; June Havoc’s Marathon ‘33, Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth, G. B. Shaw’s Heartbreak House, The Women and Arms and the Man for the Shaw Festival, Canada; Goethe’s Torquato Tasso, Goldoni’s L’impresario delle Smirne, Edith Wharton’s Custom of the Country for Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, etc.
In 1981 Michael Levine was named Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France. He has won numerous awards.
Print page
