She was born in Hamburg and works as a freelance set and costume designer. Her numerous awards include the European Opera Directing Prize (EOP) for her concept for Fidelio, the first prize of the French Syndicat professional de la critique dramatique et musicale, awarded for best set and costume designs for Platée at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, the 2020 Austrian Music Theatre Award in the category of best overall production for Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Bregenz Festival and the 2019 Oper! Award for best rediscovery for Offenbach’s Barkouf in Strasbourg.

From 2007 to 2011 Julia Hansen was Head of Production at the Stadttheater Bern. In 2012 she was invited by the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden to design the exhibition Passions, which filled several halls and was curated by Catherine Nichols.

Her recent engagements have taken her to the Grand Théâtre de Genève for Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, to the Paris Opéra (Cendrillon at the Bastille, Hänsel und Gretel at the Palais Garnier), to the Teatro Real in Madrid (Achille in Sciro), the Santa Fe Opera (Carmen), the Theater an der Wien (Castor et Pollux, The Fairy Queen), the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), the Semperoper Dresden (The Bartered Bride), the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile (Lulu), the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (L’Étoile), the Cologne Opera (Le nozze di Figaro, Barkouf), the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen (Le Grand Macabre, Salome), the Malmö Opera (Orphée aux enfers, The Makropulos Affair) and the Vienna Volksoper (Die lustige Witwe). She has also worked regularly for Opera Vlaanderen (Il Giasone, Il viaggio a Reims, Agrippina, Rossini’s Armida) and for Glyndebourne Festival (Don Pasquale, Poliuto, Il turco in Italia, Don Giovanni).

At the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg Julia Hansen has designed Barkouf, La Calisto, Das Liebesverbot, Der Rosenkavalier, Werther, La Belle Hélène and Platée, along with a production of Die Zauberflöte that went on to be performed in Nice, Graz and Cologne.

Her recent theatre work includes set designs for Othello at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Mary Stuart at the Parco Theatre in Tokyo and #Motherfuckinghood at the Berliner Ensemble.

Julia Hansen is also involved in education work and youth projects. She works closely on individual projects with Chez Company (Gesine Danckwart). Together with Anisha Bondy she designs young people’s concerts for the Philharmonie Luxembourg.

Future projects will take her to the Berlin State Opera (Roméo et Juliette), the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen (Der Rosenkavalier and Maria Stuarda) and back to Glyndebourne Festival (Le nozze di Figaro).