Roger Butlin obituary

Innovative stage designer with a love of baroque opera and a painterly sensibilityIn 1972 Thomas Allen was a young baritone preparing to sing Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd for Welsh National Opera. Although nervous, he was reassured by the atmospheric designs, and later recalled thinking: "This piece is going to be a success. We can't fail," because Roger Butlin's set "was so wonderful that we would have been idiots not to make it work."One of the earliest opera designs by Butlin, who has d...

Read full article Share article