During the 2025-26 season, Antony McDonald makes his HGO debut as the director of Hansel and Gretel. As a director-designer, McDonald's credits include Phaedra & Miotaur, 4/4 - Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Royal Ballet and Opera); Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (Irish National Opera, Royal Ballet and Opera); Der Ring des Nibelungen (Dutch Touring Opera); Rusalka, The Queen of Spades, and Fidelio (Grange Park Opera); Lohengrin (Welsh National Opera, Polish National Opera, Greek National Opera); Powder Her Face (Irish National Opera); Mary Stuart (Opera North); L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Bolshoi Theatre); Tristan and Isolde (Opéra national du Rhin); The Importance of Being Earnest (Northern Ireland Opera); Die Gezeichneten (St. Gallen); Ariadne auf Naxos (Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park); Werther (Bergen National Opera); and On The Town and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre Japan). He has also designed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court, Old Vic, Almeida, National Theatre, and Scottish Ballet. McDonald was nominated for the 2023 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his design for Alcina (Royal Ballet and Opera), and he won Set Designer of the Year at the 2013 International Opera Awards. He is a Royal Designer for Industry, a title awarded annually by the U.K.’s Royal Society of Arts to exceptional designers.