Richard Hudson

Costume designer

Born in Zimbabwe, he trained at Wimbledon School of Art. Designs for opera include The Queen of Spades, Yevgeny Onyegin, Ermione, Manon Lescaut and the Mozart / Da Ponte operas (Glyndebourne); Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (ROH); The Ring Cycle (ENO); A Night at the Chinese Opera (Kent Opera); The Vanishing Bridegroom (Scottish Opera); Cunning Little Vixen (Opera North); Samson et Dalila (the Met); Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Guillaume Tell, Ernani, La Forza del Destino (Staatsoper Vienna), Lucia di Lammermoor (Munich); The Rake’s Progress (Chicago and Japan); Peter Grimes (Amsterdam); Les Vepres siciliennes, La Khovanschina (Paris); Tamerlano, Idomeneo (Florence); Benvenuto Cellini (Zurich); The Makropulos Case (Copenhagen); Fall of the House of Usher (Bregenz); La Bohème (Athens), Divorzio all’Italiana (Opera de Nancy) and Forza del Destino (Brussels).

In 1988 he won an Olivier Award for a season of plays at the Old Vic, and for The Lion King he received a Tony Award in 1998. He is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). In 2003 he won the Gold Medal for set design at the Prague Quadrenniale, and in 2005 he was given an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Surrey. Plans include Rigoletto (Wiener Volksoper), Armida (the Met), Il Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte and Don Giovanni (San Francisco).