Urs Schönebaum
Urs Schönebaum studied photography in Munich and worked from 1995 until 1998 with Max Keller as a part of the lighting department of the Münchner Kammerspiele. After being assistant director for productions at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Lincoln Center in New York, and the Münchner Kammerspiele, he began in 2000 to work as a lighting designer for opera, theater, dance, art installations and performances. He has worked on over 130 productions at major theaters including Covent Garden London; Opéra Bastille, Opera Garnier, La Comédie Française, and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; La Monnaie in Brussels; Opera de Lyon; the Metropolitan Opera New York; the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Schaubühne, and Deutsches Theater in Berlin; Bayerische Staatsoper and Residenztheater in Munich; Dramaten Stockholm; Det Norske Teatret Oslo; Teatro dell’Opera Roma; Festival d’Avignon; Teatro Real Madrid; Festival d’Aix en Provence; the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow; Salzburger Festspiele; NCPA and Poly Theater in Beijing; Sydney Opera House; Dutch National Opera, Salzburger Festspiele, Bayreuth Festival, and Wiener Festwochen. He works with stage directors including Thomas Ostermeier, La Fura dels Baus, William Kentridge, Pierre Audi, Michael Haneke, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Sasha Waltz and was a long-time collaborator of Robert Wilson. Schönebaum’s work also includes lighting designs for art projects with Vanessa Beecroft, Anselm Kiefer, Dan Graham, Taryn Simon, and Marina Abramović. He has designed works for installations in Karkow, Munich, Salzburg, and New York. In 2012, he directed and designed the two operas Jetzt and What Next? and in 2014, Happy Happy, composed by Mathis Nitschke at the Opéra national de Montpellier. In 2017, he created the set and lighting design for the production Bomarzo at the Teatro Real in Madrid.