Étienne Pluss Set designer

Etienne Pluss ran an art gallery in Geneva before obtaining a set design diploma at Berlin’s University of the Arts in 1996. He began his career in the theatre as design assistant to Achim Freyer and Karl-Ernst Herrmann. He has collaborated with many stage directors, including George Tabori, Nadja Loschky, Claus Guth, Richard Brunel, Christoph Loy, Enrico Lubbe, Adriana Altaras, Patrick Schlosser.

His most recent work includes his sets for Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee at Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Elektra for Bonn Opera, Martha at Opera Frankfurt, Die Passagierin for Graz Opera and Winterreise at Leipzig Theatre. During the pandemic, he designed the sets for La serva padrona at Frankfurt Opera.

In 2021, he designed the sets for Salomé at Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. He also worked with Richard Brunel for the production of Rigoletto at Opéra national de Lorraine, with Immo Karaman for Otello at Hannover Staatsoper and with Evgeny Titov for Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus.

In 2022, he designed the sets for The Makropulos Affair at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, for Bluthaus at Munich Staatsoper, Il Viaggio, Dante at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Giacomo Puccini’s Triptych at the Salzburg Festival, Alice in Wonderland at Zurich Opernhaus, and On purge bébé! at La Monnaie in Brussels.

He also designed the sets for Don Carlo for the 2022/23 season’s opening of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and recently collaborated with director Katharina Thoma for Don Giovanni at the Leipzig Opera, and with Nadja Loschky for Hamlet at the Komische Oper Berlin.

The 2023/24 season sees him design the sets for Giulio Cesare in Egitto in Frankfurt, staged by Nadja Loschky, Turandot at Staatsoper Vienna and Samson at the Aix-en-Provence Festival staged by Claus Guth.

At the Paris Opera: La Bohème, 2017