
Yannis Kokkos
Set Designer, Costume Designer
He was born in Athens. He attended scenography courses at the University of Dramatic Art in Strasbourg. Since 1963 he has been living and working in France. He made his debut in 1965 as a set designer in Carlo Goldoni’s comedy La locandiera. He was for a number of years a partner of Antoine Vitez and Jacques Lassalle. He has designed sets for numerous theatrical and lyrical works. In 1976, along with René Loyon he founded the company Je/Ils, and in 1980 they co-wrote the play Voyages avant l ‘an 40. As a director he first appeared in 1987 (La princesse blanche). Since then he has directed plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Racine’s Iphigenia, etc., as well as operas: Nabucco, Tristan und Isolde, Cavalleria rusticana, Xenakis’ Oresteïa, etc. Either as a set and costume designer or director he has collaborated, among others, with La Scala Milan, Palais Garnier Paris, Covent Garden London, Mariinsky Theater, Teatro Real Madrid, Vienna State Opera, May Music Festival Florence, San Francisco Opera, etc. He has been awarded, among others, the Laurence Olivier Award, Molière Award, Union Critics’ Award and the Medal of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French state. He has collaborated with renowned contemporary artists (Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, George Apergis, George Kouroupos), as well as distinguished orchestra conductors (Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta), choreographer John Neumeier, etc. He collaborated with the GNO as a director, set and costume designer in the productions of Der fliegende Holländer (Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 2013), Otello (Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 2014), Tristan und Isolde (Athens Concert Hall, 2015) and Elektra (Stavros Niarchos Hall, 2017) // Last update of the biography: October 2017 – The list of the productions below is complete.