Johan Engels also served as set and costume designer for HGO’s Otello (2014), Chorus! (2009), and The Elixir of Love (2000), and set designer for Don Carlos (2011) and The Passenger (2014). Engels studied fine arts and design at the University of Pretoria and during his lifetime designed extensively for opera, ballet, and theater. With director David Pountney, he collaborated on The Magic Flute (Bregenz Festival); Pelleas et Mélisande, Lulu, and Khovanshchina (Welsh National Opera); The Passenger (Bregenz, English National Opera, Warsaw, and Chicago); Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi (Lyon); Maskarade (Bregenz; Royal Opera, Covent Garden); Osud (Vienna State Opera); Turandot (Salzburg Festival); and L’amore dei tre re, Zemlinsky’s Der Kreidekrei, and Agrippina (Zurich), among others. Other work includes Parsifal (Chicago); Mathis der Maler (Theater an der Wien); Faust (Paris National Opera); Thaïs (Gothenburg, Helsinki, Seville, Valencia, Los Angeles); The Elixir of Love (Los Angeles, Washington, Geneva, Madrid, Graz); Cinderella(Zurich Ballet); Ballet to Beethoven’s Fifth (Vienna State Ballet); Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (Opera North); and Otello (Parma, Monte Carlo, Los Angeles). He also designed costumes for Vienna’s New Year’s Day Concert several times. His final productions included the Ring cycle (Lyric Opera of Chicago) directed by David Pountney; The Great Gatsby (Semperoper) with director Keith Warner; Twelfth Night (Japan) directed by John Caird; and Orpheus ed Euridice (Scottish Opera) with director/choreographer Ashley Page.
Scenic and Costume Designer:
THE ELIXIR OF LOVE 1999-2000
CHORUS! 2008-09
OTELLO 2014-15
Scenic Designer:
DON CARLOS 2011-12
THE PASSENGER 2013-14 (Mainstage and Park Avenue Armory, NYC)