La Vestale

In La Vestale, my visual approach emerged from a dialogue between two deep interests: mythological imagery and the expressive power of the human body shaped through light and shadow. I collaborated with Greek visual artist Lydia Venieri, whose projected mythological creatures inhabited the stage as spectral presences—figures that felt both ancient and psychological, hovering between ritual and hallucination.
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Rather than illustrating the narrative literally, the production emphasized symbols and interior states. The projections functioned as a kind of visual subconscious, revealing a backstage world of the opera—emotional, spiritual, and unseen. Against these images, the performers’ bodies became sculptural forms: silhouettes, fragments, and shadows carefully composed through lighting. For me, lighting is not decorative but a language; shaping bodies in space is a way of thinking, of speaking, and of composing images.

This photographic sensibility became especially important in working with a libretto that is not always strong dramaturgically, even as Spontini’s music remains overwhelmingly powerful. Visual composition, shadow, and symbolic imagery created an alternative dramaturgy—one rooted in atmosphere, tension, and ritual rather than plot mechanics.

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Together with Lydia Venieri, we channeled a mystical sensuality drawn from the world of ancient Rome and the Vestals themselves: restrained, charged, and ceremonial. The result was a visual landscape where myth, body, and light converged—less a reconstruction of history than an invocation of its emotional and symbolic residue.