Front cloth design
The Cunning Little Vixen / Příhody lišky Bystroušky
three acts
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Première 22 March 1961
Sadler's Wells Opera Company
Sadler's Wells Theatre - London
Colin Graham, direction
Costume for Patricia Routledge as Belinda, Act II
Engaged! or Cheviot’s Choice
Musical version of the farcical comedy Engaged
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Première 27 March 1962
Bristol Opera School1While Barry Kay's set and costume designs for Engaged! bear no references to performing venues, the costume drawings are, however, inscribed with the names of the singers, corresponding with the cast of the Windsor presentation. But there is no indication as to whether the designs applied to the Bristol staging as well.
Victoria Rooms, Bristol
Set design – Act I
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg / The Meistersingers of Nuremberg
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Other assignments: properties
Première 24 January 1969
The Royal Opera
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London
Rudolf Hartmann (also production), direction
Set model
actual stage setting
Mirrors of the Truth
Holland Festival, discipline 'Muziektheater'2Mirrors of the Truth and The Tell-Tale Heart were presented as a double bill with one set serving both operas.
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Other assignments: properties
Première 12 June 1982
De Nederlandse Opera Stichting (now: De Nederlandse Opera)
Het HOT Theater, Den Haag
Jan Bouws, direction
White model of the set
Peter Grimes
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Other assignments: Properties / Special Effects
Intended for the Victoria State Opera Company2For reason unbeknown to the Barry Kay Archive, the Victoria State Opera Company decided to abandon the production of Peter Grimes later in 1984 or in early 1985, thus terminating Barry Kay's design work midstream. By that time he had designed the preparatory so-called white model, or working model of miniature scale, and completed the final model at a scale of 1:25. The termination however put an end to designing the costumes. – See Biography for further information.
State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
John Copley (proposed), direction
Set design
The Garden, Act I, scene 1
The Rake’s Progress
Set Design: Barry Kay2In 1953, when Barry Kay was still studying at the Académie Julian in Paris but settled in Melbourne again later that year, he created four sets designs for The Rake's Progress – one for each of the three acts, and an act drop. Although the drawings are titled, dated and signed, they contain no performance data. It is therefore possible that they represent a study project or perhaps an exam work.
Stage scene
The Tell-Tale Heart
Holland Festival, discipline 'Muziektheater'2The Tell-Tale Heart was performed in a drop-in scene arrangement placed within the stage setting of Mirrors of the Truth.
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Other assignments: Properties
Première 12 June 1982
De Nederlandse Opera Stichting (now: De Nederlandse Opera)
Het HOT Theater, Den Haag
Jan Bouws, direction
Set design, centre section
The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore ballet-cum-opera
Set Design: Barry Kay
Costumes: Barry Kay
Première 22 July 1958
New Opera Company and Western Theatre Ballet 2The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore is listed in both the Ballet index and the Opera index, as it covers both ballet and opera.
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London
Peter Darrell, choreography