Michael Levine was born in Toronto and studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London. He works in theatre, cinema, and opera all over the world.

He has created sets for the New York Metropolitan Opera (Parsifal, Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, Mefistofele), Milan’s La Scala (Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Don Giovanni, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), London’s Royal Opera House (Die Fliegende Holländer), the Vienna Staatsoper (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Jérusalem, Dialogues des carmélites), the Paris Opera (Elektra, Capriccio, Les Boréades, Rusalka, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Nabucco, I Capuleti e i Montecchi), the English National Opera (Rigoletto, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,Gavin Bryars’ Doctor Ox’s Experiment, the world premiere productions of Rudolf Rojahn’s Heart of a Dog and Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds), Chicago’s Lyric Opera and Madrid’s Teatro Real (Rigoletto, Billy Budd), the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam (Die Zauberflöte), the Lyon Opera (Parsifal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the world premiere production of Michel Tabachnik Benjamin, dernière nuit), Turin’s Teatro Regio (Rusalka), the Théâtre du Châtelet (Candide), the Rhine Opera (La Bohème), the Florence Musical May Festival (Elektra), the Canadian Opera Company of Toronto (Wozzeck, Idomeneo, Œdipus Rex, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Bluebeard’s Castle, Erwartung, and the sets and costumes for the complete cycle of Wagner’s Ring as well as the staging for Das Rheingold), the Aix Festival (Die Zauberflöte, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Zurich Opera (The Queen of Spades, Sweeney Todd), the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (The Rape of Lucretia), London’s Complicite Theatre (A Disappearing Number, The Elephant Vanishes and Mnemonic), and the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic Theatre, the Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre and theatres in London’s West End and on Broadway.
His work has received numerous awards including a Gemini Award, the Prix de la Critique in Paris, the Edinburgh Festival Music Award, two Dora Awards and the Toronto Arts Award. He was promoted to the rank of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2002. In addition to Robert Carsen, Michael Levine also works with Deborah Warner, Simon McBurney and Andreas Homoki.

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