Though best known as the director of innovative and controversial films, Derek Jarman (1942-1994) trained as a painter at the Slade School of Art, developing a non-figurative, linear style. An exhibition of his work was brought to the attention of choreographer Frederick Ashton, who asked Jarman to design the ballet, Jazz Calendar (Royal Opera House, 1968), and this in turn led to a commission to create sets and costumes for a new production of Don Giovanni by Sadler's Wells Opera later in the same year. The production, directed by John Gielgud, opened the company's new base at the London Coliseum.

Jarman produced severely geometric settings, with large pyramids, cones and blocks which could be moved to suggestion the opera's different locations. His designs reflected his interest in architecture and garden design, with obelisks, terraces, and towering green monoliths representing the hedges in a stylised formal garden, and were influenced by the work of Paul Nash and de Chirico. Interviewed by the Sunday Times (18 August 1968), Jarman spoke of his dislike of 'unnecessary detail, which blurs the outlines of sets and costumes'.