Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.

Der Rosenkavalier, an opera by Richard Strauss (1909-1910), was mounted at Glyndebourne in 1959 in tribute to Carl Ebert, who retired that year after 25 years as the director of Glyndebourne. The production received criticism for the small stage overcrowded with performers and scenery. Set in Vienna during the eighteenth century reign of Empress Maria Theresa, Messel created a lavish rococo fantasy. This was his last production for Glyndebourne.

According to Messel’s set design notes, the rococo style panelling ornament was painted rather than carved to give the illusion of gold stucco work because ‘this I feel can give more scope for an illusion of space and atmosphere and more freedom to the architectural forms of rococo design than is possible to execute in solid form’.