Set design by Alan Barlow for Act II of Bellini's opera, Norma, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1952.

The Royal Opera House's 1952 staging of Norma has passed into operatic history as it was the production in which Maria Callas made her British debut. Alan Barlow designed the costumes and scenery, and encountered a problem when Callas, who had sung Norma at La Scala, insisted on wearing the dresses from that production, ruining the unity of the design. Barlow was determined to make her change her mind. Seeing Callas during a coffee break,'he rushed up with the designs, dropped them in her lap, and she instinctively cried, "Que bellissima!" It was his dress she wore' (obituary by Edward Barlow, Independent, 6 May 2005). This set design shows the first scene of Act II. Norma, High Priestess of the Druids in Gaul, has learnt that her lover, Pollione, the Roman proconsul, is unfaithful. In her rage and anguish she contemplates killing the two children she has borne him, but cannot bring herself to strike.

Alan Barlow (1927-2005) began designing for amateur dramatics in his home town of Coventry and in 1946 became Resident Designer at the Bristol Old Vic, working with director Hugh Hunt. When Hunt became director at the Old Vic in London, Barlow joined him, winning acclaim for his first London production, Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, in 1949, designed after Rowlandson. Subsequent work for the Old Vic included the 1951 Festival of Britain production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Clandestine Marriage, and Murder in the Cathedral. For the Royal Opera House he designed A Masked Ball (1952), as well as the historic Norma.

Barlow had converted to Catholism in 1950 and in 1953 he abandoned his successful theatrical career and became a Benedictine monk at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire, where he designed murals, pottery, tapestries and stained glass and painted portraits. Though his religious faith remained important, he decided that the monastic life was not for him and returned to theatre design in 1965, when he received a Fellowship in the Drama Department of Manchester University, and then became its Head of Design and lecturer in Greek Theatre. In 1969 he was appointed Head of Design at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, a post which he held until 1971. He continued to design for major theatre and opera companies around the world, notably for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. In 1980 he retired from the theatre to concentrate on painting, though he did return to the stage for a production of The Bacchae at Stratford Ontario in 1995.