Tate Modern Turbine Hall to showcase David Hockney opera sets

Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will be transformed into an immersive opera house to present the sets David Hockney designed for productions of Mozart, Wagner and Stravinsky dating back to the 1970s. The museum will use the sets as the centrepiece of its celebration of Hockney’s 90th birthday in 2027.

Better known for his landscapes and portraits, Hockney produced 11 opera sets over 17 years, beginning in 1975. He first tried set design at the Royal Court for Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi and went on to create designs including Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, which embraced a pop-art aesthetic.

When asked why he began working on set designs he replied, "I wanted to design operas because I want to have something to look at." Tate’s 2027 programme also features a retrospective of Sonia Boyce, an Edvard Munch show and a reopening of Tate Liverpool with a career-spanning survey of Chila Kumari Singh Burman.

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