Set and Costume Design
Since 1999, Okarina Peter and Timo Dentler have worked together as a set and costume design team. Their work has been presented at numerous opera houses and theatres, including the Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Stuttgart under the artistic directorship of Klaus Zehelein, Volksoper Wien, Oper Graz, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Staatsoper Hannover, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Deutsches Theater Berlin, the theatres in Bern and Lucerne, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Oper Bonn, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, Theater an der Wien and the Bregenz Festival.
Peter and Dentler have a long-standing artistic collaboration with Peter Konwitschny. Their designs for his productions include ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, ‘Idomeneo’ at Theater Heidelberg, ‘Il trovatore’ at Staatstheater Nürnberg and ‘Boris Godunov’ at the Gothenburg Opera. For Volker Schlöndorff, they designed the sets and costumes for ‘Le vieux juif blonde’ at the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris.
At Staatsoper Hannover, their productions include ‘Chicago’ and ‘Die Zirkusprinzessin’, directed by Felix Seiler. Peter and Dentler designed the sets for ‘Märchen im Grand Hotel’ at Staatsoper Hannover and ‘Ball im Savoy’ at Staatstheater Nürnberg; both productions received the BR-Klassik ‘Frosch’ Award.
Another long-standing collaboration is with Stefan Huber, for whom they have created numerous set and costume designs, including ‘Titanic’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at the Bad Hersfeld Festival, as well as the set design for ‘Oh läck Du mir!’. The latter production received the Swiss Prix Walo.
In 2020, Okarina Peter and Timo Dentler conceived and designed the exhibition ‘Die Welt, ein Raum mit Flügeln’ (The World, a Room with Wings) at Stadthaus Ulm.
From 2021 to 2025, Peter and Dentler designed the sets and costumes for the complete ‘Ring des Nibelungen’ cycle at Theater Klagenfurt, directed by Aron Stiehl.
In 2022, they created the set and costume designs for the internationally acclaimed world premiere of ‘Pah-Lak’ at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India. The production subsequently opened its European tour at the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.
At Theater Bielefeld, Peter and Dentler designed the sets and costumes for the world premiere of the opera ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’, directed by Wolfgang Nägele. In 2023, the production was named Best Cross-Genre Production by Die Deutsche Bühne and was featured in a documentary broadcast on ARTE.
For Angela Denoke, they designed the sets and costumes for ‘Salome’ at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck and ‘Die tote Stadt’ at Staatstheater Mainz. At Oper Bonn, Peter and Dentler designed the sets and costumes for ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’, directed by Aron Stiehl. For Peter Konwitschny, they created the design for ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ at Landestheater Linz.
For the reopening of Theater an der Wien, Peter and Dentler designed the sets and costumes for Johann Strauss’s ‘Das Spitzentuch der Königin’, directed by Christian Thausing. At Oper Graz, they created the design for ‘Arizona Lady’.
In 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2023 and 2025, Okarina Peter and Timo Dentler were nominated by the German opera magazine Opernwelt in the category Set Designer of the Year, and in 2011 and 2016 also in the category Costume Designer of the Year. In 2023, ‘Salome’ received a nomination for the Austrian Music Theatre Award in the category Best Design.
Current and upcoming projects include ‘Aida’ at Oper Bonn, ‘Un ballo in maschera’ at the Semperoper Dresden, ‘Angels in America’ at Opernhaus Zürich and ‘Die schweigsame Frau’ at Staatstheater Nürnberg.
Directors they have worked with include Adriana Altaras, Nicholas Broadhurst, Angela Denoke, Harald Fuhrmann, Georg Heckel, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Michael Heicks, Stefan Huber, Immo Karaman, Peter Konwitschny, Nadja Loschky, Ulrich Mokrusch, Wolfgang Nägele, Volker Schlöndorff, Felix Seiler, Aron Stiehl, Tomo Sugao, Walter Sutcliffe, Christian Thausing, Manfred Weiß and Klaus Zehelein.
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Timo Dentler
Timo Dentler studied set and costume design at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1990 to 1999 under Prof. Karl Kneidl, becoming his master student (Meisterschüler) in 1999. In 1996, he received the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf’s Markus Lüpertz Prize. Alongside his studies, from 1992 to 1998 he worked as an assistant set and costume designer at institutions including the Berliner Ensemble, Oper Frankfurt, Wiener Festwochen and Münchner Kammerspiele, assisting on numerous productions by Peter Zadek.
Okarina Peter
Okarina Peter studied set and costume design at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1994 to 2000 under Prof. Karl Kneidl, becoming his master student (Meisterschülerin) in 1999. From 1994 to 1998, she worked as an assistant set and costume designer at institutions including Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Münchner Kammerspiele and Wiener Festwochen, working on productions by directors including Dimiter Gotscheff and Peter Zadek.