António Lagarto

Antonio Lagarto is a Portuguese set, costume designer and artist.

He lived in London through the seventies and eighties, having graduated at St. Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art. His activity has been divided between London, Lisbon and Paris. He was Deputy Director (1989-1993) of Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (Lisbon’s National Theatre) and Director (2005 and 2006). He was Director of Festival Internacional de Teatro – FIT (Lisbon's International Theatre Festival) (1991-1995).

He started his career in performance art and environment / installations, having later developed his activity in set and costume design.His works have spanned installations to photography, film, illustration, graphics and interior design. He collaborated in several art and design projects with the architect Nigel Coates (architect), between 1975 and 1981.

His set and costume designs for theatre, dance, ballet and opera have been shown since 1978 at Portuguese National Theatres (S. Carlos Opera House, D. Maria II, S. João and the National Ballet), at Gulbenkian Ballet and Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), Sadler’s Wells Theatre (London), Theatre Royal and Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), Théâtre National de la Colline (Paris), Opéra de Paris, Turin Opera, Maria Guerrero and La Comedia (Madrid) and at SESC/Vila Mariana (S. Paulo), amongst others.

Sample work

His work has been exhibited at Serralves Museum (Oporto), Luís Serpa Gallery (Lisbon), Art Net Gallery (London), Galleria Zona (Florence), amongst others. He was present at "(P)Portugal 1990/2004, Architecture and Design", at Palazzo della Triennale (Milan).

Some of his most emblematic designs were for "Fausto, Fernando, Fragmentos.", by Fernando Pessoa, directed by Ricardo Pais, at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (Lisbon 1989) and for "Hamlet a mais", by William Shakespeare, also directed by Ricardo Pais, at Teatro Nacional S. João (Oporto 2003). For the Paris Opera (1997) he designed the sets for "The Merry Widow", by Franz Lehár, directed by Jorge Lavelli, with Karita Matila in the title role. His latest costume and set designs were for "Swan Lake",with Ana Lacerda and Carlos Acosta, choreographed by Mehmet Balkan, for the National Ballet of Portugal (Companhia Nacional de Bailado), presented at Teatro Camões and at Teatro de Madrid (Madrid - February 2007).This production will be shown at the end of September at Bangkok’s Festival.