Born in 1950 in Frankfurt am Main, he studied in the 1970s with Wilfried Minks in Hamburg and Berlin, and was later his assistant. In 1974, he began working as a stage designer for the Schillertheater in Berlin and the Munich Kammerspiele. He later became Head of Stage Design at the Bremen Theater, and moved to the Bochum Schauspielhaus in 1983 where he worked closely with the celebrated director Jürgen Gosch. From 1992 to 1998, he was Professor of Scenography at the ZKM in Karlsruhe.

With Peter Mussbach, he has created many opera productions in Hamburg, Kassel and Brussels. His own productions include Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and works by Brecht and Schiller in Bochum and Mainz.

His collaborations with director Benedict Andrews include La bohème (Dutch National Opera, ENO), Three Sisters (Young Vic) and Big and Small (Barbican, starring Cate Blanchett). His previous collaborations with director Joe Hill-Gibbins include Greek (Opera Ventures/Scottish Opera) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Young Vic). Last year, he gave the Edward Gordon Craig Lecture at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Forthcoming: Fidelio (set/costumes, Deutsche Oper Berlin); Oedipe (Komische Oper Berlin); Time of Our Singing (La Monnaie, Brussels).