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Repertory Archive

Jérôme Kaplan

Biography

Born in Paris, Jérôme Kaplan studied Scenography at L’Ecole de la Rue Blanche and after graduating in 1987 began working extensively designing sets and costumes for theatre and opera.

In 1992 he collaborated with the Ballets de Monte Carlo and Jean-Christophe Maillot for the first time on L’Enfant et les sortileges and has since designed sets and costumes for the productions of Romeo and JulietteCinderella,Casse-Noisette CircusEye for Eye andScheherazade.

In 2001, Kaplan became the first French scenographer to be invited to work with the National Ballet of China in Beijing where he created costumes forRaise the Red Lantern staged by the director Zhang Yimou.

Kaplan has worked extensively for ballet, with Bertrand d’At: The Prince of Pagodas, Opera of Strasbourg, In the Mood for Love, Ballet of Shanghai, with Karine Sporta, Feu le Music Hall, Comedie-Française and In the Night Look, Opera of Cairo. He has also worked with David Nixon on Northern Ballet’s OndineA Sleeping Beauty Tale and The Great Gatsby. Other recent ballet work includes: Christopher Wheeldon’s The Sleeping Beauty, with Ib Andersen on Kermesse in Bruges for the Royal Ballet of Denmark and with Nacho Duato on The Nutcracker for the Mikhailovsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Deutsche Oper in Berlin.

Since 2010 Kaplan has worked with Alexei Ratmansky creating sets and costumes for Don Quixote for the Dutch National Ballet, the world premiere ofLost Illusions for the Bolshoi in Moscow, for which he won a Golden Mask Award in 2012 for costume design, Cinderella for the Australian Ballet in Melbourne, Paquita for the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich and Swan Lake for the Zürich Ballet in coproduction with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.