Creative teamPia Virolainen

Pia Virolainen is a Finnish lighting designer based in Hamburg.

Opera productions have taken the lighting designer, who works primarily internationally, to Royal Opera Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala Milan, San Francisco Opera, NYC Opera, National Center for the Performing Arts Beijing, Vienna State Opera, Dutch National Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Den Jyske Opera and the Royal Danish Opera, among many others.

In recent years she has been responsible for the lighting design for “Il Trovatore”, “Ruffen”, “Der Fliegende Holländer” and “L'Elisir d'Amore” for Opera Ostfold in Norway.

In the field of musicals, she created the lighting design for „Der Medicus“, „Die Schatzinsel“, „Die Päpstin“, „Bonifatius“ and the “Spotlight 20 Jahre Gala” in Fulda, „Heidi - das Musical“, „Gotthelf“, „Io Senza Te“, „Gräfin Mariza“, „Anna Göldi“ and “Oh Läck Du Mir” in Switzerland, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “A Chorus Line” for the Bad Hersfeld Festival, “West Side Story“ in Wuppertal, „La Cage aux Folles“ in Mainz and Bergen, “Flawed” in Oslo as well as „Die Habsburgischen“ and „The Producers“ for the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien and “Frida & Frida” for the Friedrichstadtpalast Berlin. Her work as Associate Lighting Designer includes musicals such as „Mamma Mia“ (over 25 European productions), „Disney's Beauty and the Beast“ (Oberhausen, Berlin, Moscow and Barcelona) and „Mary Poppins“ (Scheveningen and Melbourne).

(Status: March 2026)