This mask was one of several designed by Jocelyn Herbert (1917-2003) for the English National Opera's world premiere of The Mask of Orpheus by Harrison Birtwhistle (b.1934) with a libretto by Peter Zinovieff, directed by David Freeman at the London Coliseum, 21st May 1986.

Jocelyn Herbert, a true enthusiast of Greek drama and the power of the mask, designed the sets and costumes for the opera's premiere. The complex staging involved suns, rivers, a flying golden carriage, and large puppets that played with the sense of proportion. All the characters wore masks imitating a head wearing a mask and long gauze neck-pieces through which the singers sang.

Jocelyn Herbert trained at the London Theatre Studio run by Michel Saint Denis and George Devine, graduating in 1938. The outbreak of war, marriage and a family, prevented her from taking up a design career immediately, but in 1956 she joined Devine at the Royal Court as a staff scene painter and in 1957 designed her first Royal Court production, Ionesco's The Chairs. She worked with Devine for ten years and her minimal settings, in which realistic details were placed within simplified settings and everything was subordinated to function, revolutionised post-war stage design. Her work was also seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the National Theatre, where her designs for Peter Hall's productions of The Oresteia(1981) and The Oedipus Plays (1996), using full masks, were especially acclaimed.

Harrison Birtwhistle (b.1934), was fascinated by myth and legend, and spent a decade writing his lyric tragedy The Mask of Orpheus. He returned to the Orpheus story on several occasions, including for The Corridor, Aldeborough Festival 2009, his chamber opera for two singers and instrumental ensemble.