John Macfarlane b. 1948

John Macfarlane was born in Scotland and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He was awarded The Leverhulme Prize on graduation. He received an Arts Council of Great Britain Trainee Designer award and spent some time as Resident Designer at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

For the first fifteen years of his career he worked mainly in dance with many of the major international companies. Latterly John has focussed on opera where he designs both sets and costumes. In addition to his opera and dance work, John Macfarlane exhibits regularly as a painter and print maker.

As one of the leading influencers in theatric art, John Macfarlane is widely regarded as one of the finest theatre designers and painters. John’s work has appeared in major collections, galleries and exhibitions in Cardiff, London, Chicago, Vienna, Glasgow, Paris and New York.

Opera designs include Peter Grimes, Magic Flute, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Duke Bluebeard's Castle/Erwartung and L'Heure espagnole/Gianni Schicchi (Royal Opera), Hansel and Gretel (Welsh National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, New York), The Queen of Spades (Welsh National Opera), War and Peace (Opéra Bastille), La Clemenza di Tito (Paris Opéra), Agrippina (La Monnaie, Brussels), The Trojans (English National Opera), Don Giovanni (La Monnaie, San Francisco), Idomeneo (Vienna), Elektra and Rusalka (Lyric Opera Chicago), The Rake's Progress (Scottish Opera) and Maria Stuarda (Metropolitan Opera). His most recent opera designs are for Tosca, together with Flying Dutchman and Agrippina (all for Metropolitan Opera, New York) and Macbeth (Lyric Opera Chicago and Canadian National Opera).

Dance designs include Sir Peter Wright's Giselle (Royal Ballet) Tetley's La Ronde and Liam Scarlett's Frankenstein, Asphodel Meadows, Sweet Violets and The Age of Anxiety (Royal Ballet), Hummingbird (San Francisco Ballet and Joffrey Ballet), and The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Le Baiser de la fée (Birmingham Royal Ballet).

His most recent ballet designs were the sets and costumes for Swan Lake (Royal Ballet).

In 2015 (Hummingbird) and again in 2019 (Swan Lake) he was awarded the designer's laureate of Benois de la Danse (Moscow). He is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and a judge of the Linbury Prize.