Rouben Ter-Arutunian

Who was Rouben Ter-Arutunian?

Rouben Ter-Arutunian was a costume and scenic designer for dance, opera, theater and television.

Born in Tiflis, Georgia, he attended the Reimann Art School from 1939 to 1941, studied film music at the Hochschule fur Musik and took courses at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University, 1941–43, and at the University of Vienna, 1943-44.

He first designed costumes for dancers of the Berlin Staatsoper in 1940, going on to design for the Dresden Opera and the Vienna State Opera. He moved to New York in 1951. In 1964 he designed the sets for the New York City Ballet production of The Nutcracker. He worked with the New York City Opera company, Hamburg State Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Opera-Comique in Paris and the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

He designed either costumes or sets, sometimes both, for 24 Broadway productions. His first production on Broadway was Measure for Measure in 1957, and his last was Goodbye Fidel in 1980. He won the 1959 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for the musical Redhead, and was nominated for the Tony Award three times for Scenic Design and one other Tony for Costume Design.