After she graduated from the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs (Paris) in set design, Chantal Thomas has worked with choreographer Laura Scozzi and directors Jean-Louis Martin-Barbaz, Michel Rostain (costumes), Étienne Pommeret, Richard Brunel and Frédéric Bélier-Garcia. (Le Nozze at the ’Aix en Provence Festival). She has designed the sets for over sixty productions in collaboration with Laurent Pelly, for the theatre (Le Roi nu, Mille francs de récompense, Harvey…), musicals (Et Vian!) and operas: Orpheus in the Underworlds (Grand Théâtre in Geneva, Opéra de Lyon), The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein and La Belle Hélène (Théâtre du Châtelet), The Tales of Hoffmann (Grand Théâtre in Lausanne, Opéra de Lyon, San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin), Les Boréades, Bluebeard's Castle, The Human Voice and La Vie parisienne (Opéra de Lyon), The Love of Three Oranges and L’Etoile (Amsterdam National Opera), L’elisir d’amore (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala), La Fille du Régiment (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona), La Traviata (Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin), Manon (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera), Robert the Devil, Don Pasquale (Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, La Monnaie in Brussels, Seville), Offenbach's King Carrot and Bluebeard (Opéra de Lyon), Bernstein's Candide (Santa Fe Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera Philadelphia, Vienna Staatsoper). Her most recent creations are La Cenerentola (Amsterdam, Geneva, Los Angeles), Così fan tutte and La Périchole (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Le Nozze di Figaro (Santa Fe, Matsumoto in Japan), Il Turco in Italia (Madrid). This season, she designs the decors for Die Fledermaus at the Opéra de Lille.

At the Paris Opera: Platée, 1999; The Seven Deadly Sins, 2001; Ariadne auf Naxos, 2003; L'elisir d'amore, 2006; Giulio Cesare, 2011; La Fille du régiment, 2012; I Puritani, 2013