This year I have been working on designing a 1:25 scale model along with the costume designs for the Philip Glass’ opera “Orphee”, an adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film. I aimed to create a design that supported the opera whilst also enhancing the magical quality already present within the score.
Drawing inspiration from the Greek myth surrounding Orpheus, I decided to locate my production in Lesbos where it is stated his head and lyre floated to after he was torn to pieces by the Bacchantes. I was influenced by the queer coding within both the myth and the opera’s libretto and decided to use Sappho Square in Mytilene for its connection to the lesbian poet Sappho. Her statue within the square acts as a mirror for Orphee and, in turn, informed my decision to have an all-female cast to create a queer adaptation.
As the Square was used for a migrants’ protest in 2018, I decided to also take inspiration from the migrant crisis on the island and wanted to suggest the mentality and struggles of a migrant by setting the piece in an impressionistic depiction of turbulent waves drawn from the harrowing images of migrants being left at sea in overcrowded boats in 2020.
The waves were also a response to the theme of ephemerality within the opera, as Orphee struggles with his mortality and the transitory nature of his past fame. I took inspiration from Christo and Jeanne Claude’s ephemeral wrapped buildings and translated that idea into the draped fabric that flows down the set in the form of water.
When making the model I was inspired by David Hockney’s painterly approach when designing sets and the Surrealist works of Giorgio de Chirico as his work is displayed in ‘warm-but-lonely’ spaces that were perfect for the world I wanted to create.
Presented here are my final set design, costume designs, and portfolio for the project.
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BA (Hons) Design for Theatre & Screen 
Margarita Gancheva | Film
