Biography
Julia Hansen, born in Hamburg, has worked as a freelance set and costume designer for theatre, opera and dance productions. She has won various awards for her design, including the European Opera-Directing-Competition (EOP) and was named Designer of the Year by Le Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique de France in 2010.
Notable engagements in the last seasons were her design (set and costumes) for Etoile at the Royal Opera House in London, Verkaufte Braut at the Semperoper Dresden (Germany), Don Quichotte in Bregenz (Austria), Hänsel&Gretel at the Opéra National de Paris Garnier, Ritorno d'Ulysse at Theatre Champs Elysées in Paris, Pigeons d’Argile (Hurel/World premiere) at Theatre Capitole Toulouse, Le grand macabre and Salome at the Aaltotheater Essen (Germany). Her designs include Castor & Pollux and Fairy Queen at the Theater an der Wien (Austria), Poliuto and Don Pasquale at the Glyndebourne Festival in the UK.
She works regularly for the Opera National du Rhin de Strasbourg and designed the operas Belle Helene, Werther, Platée, Rosenkavalier, Liebesverbot, Calisto and, as a world premiere, Offenbach's Barkouf. Besides, the Zauberflöte in Strasbourg, Nizza, Graz and Cologne, Le Nozze di Figaro in Dortmund, Nürnberg and Cologne, Agrippina, Giasone and Armida in Antwerpen (Belgium), and l Viaggio a Reims and Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Bern (Switzerland), Tel Aviv and Oviedo (Spain).
Next to opera, Julia Hansen designs also for spoken theatre like Othello at the Staatstheater Dresden (Germany) and Maria Stuart at Parco/Tokyo, and was responsible for designing the exposition Passion at the DHMD-Museum in Dresden (Germany) in 2011.
Forthcoming engagements are Paër's Leonora at the Festival for Old Music of Innsbruck, Rossini's Turco in Italia in Glyndebourne (UK) and Strauss' Die Schweigsame Frau at Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Germany).