L’Étoile: Scenic Design for a French Opera

L’Étoile reimagines the opera as an absurd fairy tale about love, power, and destiny, set within a kingdom governed by astrology and a larger cosmic order. Rather than treating each location as a separate scene, the design brings three worlds together on a single stage: the market square, the royal court, and the observatory.

Arranged vertically, these realms transform social hierarchy into spatial hierarchy. The market occupies the lowest level, the royal world rises above it, and the observatory sits closest to the stars. Celestial imagery runs throughout the environment, from a compass rose embedded in the market floor to the painted sky, constellation patterns, and the monumental clock at the center. Together, these elements turn the stage into a cosmogram of the kingdom, mapping the relationship between everyday life, political power, and fate.

Three performer operated walls continually reconfigure the space as the story unfolds. At the center, the monumental clock functions as both architecture and an active part of the story: King Ouf physically turns back its hands in an attempt to postpone his predicted death. Through this interaction, time and destiny become something the characters can touch, manipulate, and ultimately fail to control.