The Vienna State Opera mourns the death of Pantelis Dessyllas

Pantelis Dessyllas passed away in Vienna on June 3, 2025 at the age of 89. The Greek-born costume and stage designer was born on March 6, 1936 in Nikaia, Piraeus, and studied painting in Athens as well as stage design and film architecture at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. he joined the Vienna State Opera in 1965 and was head of the set design workshops at the Austrian Federal Theaters from 1971 to 1997. He also created stage sets for the Vienna State Opera, the Burgtheater and the Vienna Volksoper, as well as for the Seefestspiele Mörbisch, the Stadttheater Baden and other festivals in Austria and abroad. Among the opera and ballet productions of the Vienna State Opera for which Pantelis Dessyllas created stage sets are The Prodigal Son (1974), Lucia di Lammermoor (1978), Rigoletto (1983) and Wiener Skizzen (1983). He also reconstructed Anton Brioschi's historical stage sets for the ballet production Die Puppenfee in 1983. He also created stage sets and costumes for the legendary Nozze di Figaro production, which went on the AK-Bundesländer tour in 1979/80, as well as for the ballets Per aspera (1973), Orpheus (1974) and Relazioni fragili (1974).

Professor Pantelis Dessyllas was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna and the Kainz Medal.