Love Never Dies
LOVE NEVER DIES, Universal Studios | 2012
Released on Blu-ray and DVD, go to www.loveneverdies.com
Daily Mail, Baz Bamigboye | 2012
"Beautiful and haunting. This new production is astounding"
New York Times, Michael Riedel | 2012
"A sumptuous production that evokes the spooky atmosphere of Coney Island, where the story is set…"
Sunday Express, UK, Mark Shenton | 2012
"The new Australian production is a masterpiece"
The Sydney Morning Herald | May 2012
"Designer Gabriela Tylesova's set is a brilliant evocation of the New World at the turn of the 20th century, in which Lloyd Webber's decidedly Old World romantic torments will be played out. A spiralling rollercoaster track is both its physical skeleton and a metaphor for the twisted psyche of The Phantom...Two towers lean into the auditorium...A huge revolving cipher of the Phantom's half-mask is a kind of iris, focusing our attention. Graeme Murphy's sinuous choreography shows Tylesova's wonderful costuming to it's best advantage throughout".
The Sydney Telegraph, Jo Litson | January 2012
"Phantom sequel a triumph. It's hard to imagine the show being better staged. Tylesova's stunning set creates a mesmerising evocation of Coney Island with twinkling lights, roller-coaster-like structures and a revolving stage with an arch framed by a Phantom mask, among other visual surprises. She also designed the delectable costumes. It's an extraordinary riot of colour, exquisite detail and imagination".
The Sun Herald, Elissa Blake | January 2012
"This production by director Simon Phillips is ravishing…In a genius piece of design, Gabriela Tylesova wraps a rickety roller coaster around the stage and fills every inch of the frame with eye-catching wonders. All is revealed in the astonishing Coney Island Waltz—a number worth the ticket price on it's own".
The Sydney Morning Herald, Bryce Hallett | May 2011
"Australian set design wins over Lloyd Webber. As he sat in silence, staring at the set model for his musical Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber was dumbfounded. "I've never seen anything like it in the theatre before,"he told Gabriela Tylesova. "It is original, very European and brilliant."
The pronouncement by the world's most famous living composer came as a huge relief for the Australian-based theatre, opera and ballet designer.
After many late nights working with the musical's director, Simon Phillips, in New York, Tylesova had found a way to conjure the wondrous world of Coney Island, circa 1907, on stage.
It was a tall order and the most ambitious brief that the maker of theatrical illusions has undertaken since graduating from NIDA in 2000…"
The Adelaide Advertiser | 2011
"The sheer brilliance of the extraordinary sets…become part of an ever changing kaleidoscope…"
Herald Sun | May 2011
"A ravishing spectacle…thrilling…sets a visual standard that will be difficult to surpass".
The West Australian, William Yeoman | May 2011
"This production is a must-see…the set and costume designer Gabriela Tylesova has drawn on antient alchemical iconography for what is a technical and artistic tour-de-force".
London Daily Telegraph | June 4, 2011
"There is no question that this production cannot be improved upon. It is fabulous to look at." Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Matt Byrne—"The star sings the title song in a scene featuring a stunning peacock feather backdrop", O'Brian says the sumptuous feather set is so vivid it almost looks like a projection. "There are no projections or computer generation with our show. It's all exquisitely painted backdrops..."
West Australian Review | July 2011
"Love Never Dies may be among the most breathtaking staged musicals ever"
Cosi
The Sunday Telegraph, Jo Litson | 2009
"Style with speed in this exuberant confetti Cosi. This brings out the exuberance of Gabriela Tylesova's costumes…"
Sydney Morning Herald | 2009
"Rollicking Cosi keeps the faith. Gabriela Tylesova's glorious costumes—modern, with 18th century touches—gleam bright".
The Pillowman
The Age, Cameron Woodhead | 2007
"Director Simon Phillips seems to have an affinity for this black comedy…Designer Gabriela Tylesova is instrumental in helping to bring this vision to life. Her set shifts from prison cell to dark forest in a trice, the stage and costumes awash with sickly greens and purples for Katurian's morbid fictions".
The Australian, Thuy On | 2007
"Director Simon Phillip's dystopian fantasy is aided by Matt Scott's lighting, Ian McDonald's jagged music score and Gabriela Tylesova's slate-gray set, with its oversized cardboard cut-outs of children's drawings".
Scheherazade
Sun Herald, Julie Huffer | November 2006
"Scheherazade features specially commissioned sets and costumes by Gabriela Tylesova and it seems no expense has been spared…"
Daily Telegraph, Simon Ferguson | November 2006
"A whirl in motion. It's a heady, sexy, violent, exhilarating ride fuelled by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's dramatic music. Who says ballet is all fluffy and light?"
The Sun-Herald, Julie Huffer | November 2006
"In redesigning Scheherazade for the Australian Ballet's latest triple bill, Revolutions, Gabriela Tylesova looked to Muslim culture and architecture…The result is spectacular: there's a patterned screen that aims to convey a sense of enclosure, sculptural shapes that rise from the glossy black stage and oversized cushions suggestive of the Persian Gulf…The award-winning designer admits that creating designs that were innovative and evocative for Scheherazade was a challenge".
Vibewire, Katrine Narkiewicz | 2006
"The sumptuous set design by Gabriela Tylesova featuring the bejewelled trinkets and exquisite costumes of the far East add to the phenomenal sensory experience".
Elixir of Love
The Sydney Morning Herald, Katrina Lobley | January 2006
"Ocker Opera. Michael Scott-Mitchell shaped the striking outback set from sheets of corrugated iron. Gabriela Tylesova's costumes are similarly over-the-top. Each is hand-painted with swirls of colours inspired by the rich palettes of iconic Australian artists Fred Williams and Arthur Boyd. Tylesova and the wardrobe department painted every piece of fabrick seen on stage, down to each hat, shoe, necktie and handkerchief. They even hand-dyed the fabric-covered buttons to match the rich outback colour scheme. The costume designer concedes it was "a massive job" but "I got obsessed with it by the end". She also didn't mind the long hours and hard work because it was her first opera commission"
Qantas the Australian Way magazine, article Jill Sykes, photography by Jason Loucas | April 2001
"Modus operandi—meet the rising stars of Australian opera. Gabriela Tylesova's design career was launched in the surreal situation of working in an advertising agency in a country without advertising: the former Czechoslovakia as it ventured into capitalist-style signage in 1991. But her real love is theatre, whether with the puppets for which her birthplace is renowned or human performers. She worked in Prague and UK before taking up an invitation to come to Australia..."
VOGUE Australia, Sarah Kerr | May 2001
"Costume designer Gabriela Tylesova, a NIDA graduate born in Czechoslovakia now living in Sydney is making costumes of breathtaking detail…Each one is a handpainted work of art. "I used to paint, so for me it's quite easy," says Tylesova, flicking through illustrations, each cross-referenced with vintage fashion and period photographs…"
This Little Piggy
The Sunday Telegraph | 2005
"Must see…Gabriela Tylesova has outdone herself in creating skins for the creatures to inhabit that encapsulate their animalness and misplaced human aspirations. The make-up, said to have been collaborative, is integral to the costumes and is also fabulous. Like some kind of mad scientist, director Ben Winspear sucks every bit of nuance, drama, humor and hope out of his talented actors on an aptly bleak Ralph Myers setting, cruelly lit by Damien Cooper".
Boomerang
The Sunday Telegraph | 2005
"A marvellous 90 minutes. The set ( Peter England), lighting (Nick Schlieper) and costumes (Gabriela Tylesova) economically echo the themes of earth, fire and water with an added dimension of a simple backdrop that could be either a stratified ochre cliff or scarified skin, depending on your imagination".
Cyrano de Bergerac
The Melbourne Times, David Crofts | March 2005
"Cyrano's thrust to the heart. Directed by Simon Phillips, the piece is beautifully balanced, full of boisterous energy as well as real tenderness and pathos. This is enhanced by Gabriela Tylesova's sets and costumes that run the full gamut from outrageous decadence to intense symmetry and serenity".
Theatre notes, Alison Croggon | 2005
"Gabriela Tylesova's set, sumptuously lit by Nick Schlieper, creates a rich and flexible space which draws wittily on the theatricality of the play. The transformations—from decadent Parisian society, to a set which recalls the desolate battlefield in Abel Gance's film of Napoleon to, finally, a serene evocation of a convent in autumn - are magnificently expressive realisations of the play's different moods. And her costumes are fantasies, from Roxane's extraordinarily beautiful mourning dress to the ludicrously exaggerated fripperies of the Parisian fops".
Baroque Masterpieces
Sydney Morning Herald, Peter McCallum | 2004
"Two early jewels polished with wit. At the climax the cubist set ( designed by Gabriela Tylesova ) wept, like a tawdry medieval miracle…"
The Australian, Deborah Jones | 2004
"No waste in this emotional battle. An intricate backdrop from designer Gabriela Tylesova not only suggests various stages and ages of man but also delivers up the dancers, who step out of the picture…"
Salome
Sydney Morning Herald, Peter McCallum | 2003
"Superbly sung and played, stylishly designed and strikingly staged…"
The Sunday Telegraph, Diana Simmonds | 2003
"Salome's themes of decadence, lust and depravity are visually highlighted by Gabriela Tylesova's costuming: all Grosz and Dix grotesquerie..."
The Sun-Herald, Harriet Cunningham | 2003
"Sexy,dark and bloody—and very satisfying. This striking new production from Opera Australia, which uses the talents of director Antony Ernst and costume designer Gabriela Tylesova, ultimately creates a violent and nightmarish world of decadence and sexual longing."
The Visit
The Australian | 2003
"Guess who's back in town?. Gabriela Tylesova's expressionist black and white set design, with its jagged buildings, and the two-toned sombre costumes of the townspeople contrast brilliantly with the colour and potency of Zachanassian's garments. Caldwell makes her first appearance wearing scarlet with matching dyed hair and the effect is jaw dropping.
The Visit is one of those rare plays where everything—script, direction, acting, costume and design—coalescels to present outstanding theatre worthy of a standing ovation"
King Ubu
The Australian, John McCallum | October 2001
"Bring on the nightmares. Tom Wright and Michael Kantor have produced a wonderfully contemporary Australian version…Jarry would have loved. Bille Brown as Pa and Carole Skinner as Ma start out as Aristophanic puppets but end up weirdly frightening human figures drenched in terrorist blood. Gabriela Tylesova's wonderfully weird costume designs present the characters as humans trapped inside marionettes. Dan Potra's witty set is a toilet block in a world ravaged by war. The whole production is like a grimly elaborated poo joke with a savagely up-to-date political edge".