Eva Sommestad Holten

Librettist and set designer Eva Sommestad Holten was educated at University College of Drama in Stockholm. She has designed sets, costumes and often lighting for more than 50 productions, always with the actors and acting as focal point. Her librettos are equally characterized by a focus on dramatic flow and possibilities, fusing several levels of meaning. With a broad interest in history, ideologies and society, she has also shown her ability to make historical facts and outlooks fuse with and shed light on the drama itself. As a librettist Eva Sommestad Holten has worked on several large scale opera projects – Maria Paradis (1999), The Emperor’s New Clothes (2004), The Visit of the Royal Physician (2009), Gesualdo – Shadows (2014), the children’s opera Kjetil the Dragon (2015) and most recently Schlagt sie tot!, which will be premiered at the Malmö Opera in 2019.