Elisabeth Dalton was a prolific designer of dramatic sets for opera houses and ballet companies in Germany, Italy and Russia.

Though she studied theatre design at Wimbledon School of Art, little of her work was seen in her own country.

Her career was launched when she assisted on Royal Opera House productions of The Nutcracker and Aida in 1968.

The following year, she designed her first major sets and costumes for dance, for John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew, which was mounted by the Stuttgart Ballet and was one of the company's longest-lasting successes.

The Taming of the Shrew, always with Dalton's dcor, has been seen all round the world in 17 manifestations, notably at La Scala, Milan, in 1980 and at the Bolshoi in Moscow in 1996. Dalton was meticulous in overseeing every design detail at each revival which meant adapting sets, supervising costume fabrics and adjusting lighting.

Her association with the Stuttgart Ballet continued after Cranko's sudden death in 1973, which affected her deeply, and on new productions of many of Cranko's earlier works, including The Lady and the Fool and Pineapple Poll.

Most notable were her designs for his Romeo and Juliet in Frankfurt, and later for her work on Onegin.

Her first opera designs were through a lasting association with the director John Cox, including their collaboration on The Merry Widow at the Coliseum in 1972.

Dalton and Cox then staged Der Rosenkavalier (Houston 1975, Holland Festival 1976) and Arabella (Houston 1977, San Francisco 1979).

Dalton was well known for being wonderfully earthy and anarchic. This helped her to achieve the standards upon which she insisted in theatres around the world, and the fact that she was a superb dress-maker was no hindrance to gaining the respect, and collaboration of workers in costume departments, be they in Moscow, Sydney, Mexico City, Chicago or Santiago.

In later life, she made her mark as a part-time teacher at art schools on the South Coast of England and at the Central School in London.

She was intensely serious about her work, researching in-depth the social and art-historical background to every project she undertook, while her designs were bright and colourful.

Elisabeth Dalton, theatre designer, was born on September 3, 1940. She died on March 27, 2004, aged 63.