Viñoly designed the sets for this new production—his second for Bard SummerScape—and the first since his much-lauded creations for the 2004 presentation of Shostakovich's The Nose, a production called "top-flight" by the Wall Street Journal.
In addition to his opera productions for Bard SummerScape, Viñoly designed the sets for Chicago Opera Theater's 2007 production of Claudio Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses. He was unfamiliar with Strauss's Danae when Bard first approached him about it, but the opportunity to work there again with Leon Botstein appealed to him immensely. Viñoly explains:
"One of the fabulous characteristics of Leon's work is that he's always finding new—or new-old material—and unpublished or less-performed pieces. Amazingly, Strauss's rarely performed Danae is one of them."
"It's a wonderful environment there at Bard. I love the collaborative process, especially when I am working with such a talented set designer as Mimi Lien. Working on an opera is so different from the work we do as architects, which is limited by various requirements and a complex set of restrictions. Working in the theater gives you the freedom for the creation of magic. It is really quite extraordinary. It's very different from what architects do, but there are some obvious connections. I enjoy it enormously and will always find time to do it."
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