Before graduating from the Berlin University of the Arts with a degree in scenography in 1996, Étienne Pluss ran an art gallery in Geneva. He started his career as an associate set designer with Achim Freyer and Karl-Ernst Hermann. Pluss has collaborated with renowned directors such as George Tabori, Nadja Loschky, Claus Guth, Richard Brunel, Christof Loy, Enrico Lübbe, Adriana Altaras, and Patrick Schlösser. His recent projects include set designs for Violetter Schnee at the Berlin State Opera, Elektra at the Bonn Opera, Tristan und Isolde at the Leipzig Opera, and Martha at the Frankfurt Opera.During the pandemic, Pluss designed the sets for La serva padrona at the Frankfurt Opera. In 2021, he designed the sets for Salome at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He also collaborated with director Richard Brunel on Rigoletto at the Opéra national de Lorraine, with Immo Karaman on Otello at the Hanover State Opera, and with Evgeny Titov on Macbeth at the Düsseldorf Theatre. His 2022 set designs include L'Affaire Makropoulos at the Berlin State Opera, Bluthaus at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Il Viaggio, Dante at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Il Trittico at the Salzburg Festival, Alice in Wonderland at the Zurich Opera House, and On Purge Bébé at La Monnaie in Brussels.Over the past two seasons, he designed sets for Don Carlo at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples; Turandot at the Vienna State Opera; Samson et Dalila at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence; Hamlet at the Komische Oper Berlin; Giulio Cesare and Macbeth at the Frankfurt Opera; Wozzeck at the Opéra national de Lyon; Ariodante at the Opéra national du Rhin; and Salomé at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His designs for the 2025–2026 season include Scylla et Glaucus at the Opernhaus Zürich, Of One Blood at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Simon Boccanegra at the Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, and Così fan tutte at the Frankfurt Opera.At the Opéra national de Paris: La Bohème (2017), La Vestale (2024), Il Viaggio (Dante, 2025), and Il Trittico (2025).

Étienne PlussSet designer