Stefanos Lazaridis

Stefanos Lazaridis (28 July 1942 – 8 May 2010) was a stage designer, best known for his work in opera. Originally intended for a business career, he studied stage design in London, and was quickly in demand in theatres and opera houses, working with John Copley and other directors.

Originally his style was lavish and naturalistic, but he changed to a less traditional style, working with David Pountney and other more avant garde directors at English National Opera and elsewhere.

He occasionally directed operas, and was for a short time director of the Greek National Opera.

Lazaridis was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, son of a prosperous expatriate Greek businessman, Nicholas Lazaridis. He was educated at the Greek School in Addis Ababa and the Ecole Internationale in Geneva. In 1962 he went to London to take a course in business administration, but instead enrolled at the Byam Shaw School of Art in Kensington and later transferred to the Central School of Speech and Drama where he studied theatre design. His fellow Greek, the designer Nicholas Georgiadis, took him on as an apprentice, and he designed his first theatre production in Guildford in 1967, Tennessee Williams's Eccentricities of a Nightingale. He attracted attention for his designs for Antony Tudor's "Knight Errant" for the Royal Ballet's touring company in 1968, and was invited to design a new production of Carmen for the director John Copley at Sadler's Wells Opera in 1970.

Lazaridis's early designs were naturalistic and lavish, and suited Copley's approach to production. They worked together both at English National Opera (ENO) (The Seraglio, 1971, Il trovatore, 1972) and Covent Garden (Le nozze di Figaro, 1971, Don Giovanni, 1973). In the 1980s, Lazaridis worked a great deal with David Pountney at ENO. His design style moved away from opulent naturalism, and embraced Pountney's non-naturalistic approach. Pountney later wrote,

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