Rufus Didwiszus

Biography

Born in Cologne. In 1994 graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart as a set and costume designer (Professor: Jürgen Rose).

Participated in the realisation of the productions by the Komische Oper Belin, Opernhaus Zürich, Opera National de Paris, Opera National du Rhin (Strasburg), the Royal Swedish Opera (Stockholm), The Los Angeles Opera, drama theatres: Schaubühne (Berlin), The Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Schauspielhaus (Hamburg), Muenchner Kammerspiele in Munich, TAT Frankfurt, The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Aarhus Theatre (Denmark), Betty Nansen Teatret in Copenhagen, Sydney Theatre Company and many more. Some of the productions he designed participated at the largest theatre festivals: The Salzburg Festival, The Wiener Festwochen, the Edinburg International Festival and The Festival d'Avignon.

Since 2004, together with Joanna Dudley, he has been producing his own projects for musical theatre as director and set designer.

Gives lectures on design and architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Berlin-Weißensee College of Art.

As a set designer, and sometimes a costume designer, has collaborated with many famous directors, including Barrie Kosky, Thomas Ostermeier, Christian Stückl, Stefan Larsson, Tomas Alfredson and Christian Lollike, as well as choreographers: Christian Spuck, Sasha Waltz and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

He worked with T. Ostermeier on the production of the famous performances based on the plays by M. Ravenhill and R. Dresser (Shopping and Fucking and Below the Belt correspondingly) that saw the light at the Baracke, the studio arranged by Ostermeier at the Deutsches Theater and later were shown at The Berliner Theatertreffen and The Festival d'Avignon. And also, the productions: Fireface by M. v. Mayenburg (1999, Schauspielhaus Hamburg), The Blue Bird by M. Maeterlingk (1999, Deutsches Theater Berlin, as a costume designer), Crave by S. Kane (2000, Schaubuehne, as the costume designer and the author of the video installation, this performance received the European Theatre prize as well as the award from Kontakt, the international theatre festival in Torun (Poland) for “The best set”), The Name and The Girl on the Sofa by J.Fosse (2000, The Salzburg Festival and Schaubuehne correspondingly), Der Starke Stamm by M. Fleisser and Before Sunrise by G. Hauptmann (2002 and 2005 correspondingly, Kammerspiele Munich). For Sasha Waltz, he designed the set for Dialoge 2 to the music by H.P. Kuhn (1999, the Jewish Museum Berlin). He was a set designer on the production of The Ring Cycle based on the text of R. Wagner’s operas at TAT-Frankfurt (2001, directed by Tom Kühnel). Designed the production by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Foi, created for the troupe Les ballets C de la B (2004, Ghent).

His recent works for drama theatre include:

Romeo and Juliet by W. Shakespeare and C. Lollike (2010, Aarhus Teater, Denmark, directed by C. Lollike)
Blood Wedding by F.G. Lorca (2011, Sydney Theatre Company, directed by I. Sinclair)
Dangerous Liaisons by C. de Laclos (2013, Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, directed by S. Larsson)
Richard III by W. Shakespeare (2014, Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, directed by S. Larsson)
Madame de Sade by Y. Mishima (2015, Betty Nansen Teatret Copenhagen, Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm, directed by S. Larsson)
Höst och Vinter by L. Noren (2018, Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm, directed by S. Larsson)

For opera:

La Belle Helene, an opéra bouffe by J. Offenbach (2014, Komische Oper Berlin, directed by B. Kosky)
La fanciulla del West by G. Puccini (2014, Opera Zurich, directed by B. Kosky)
Die Perlen der Cleopatra, an opéra bouffe by O. Straus (2016, Komische Oper Berlin, directed by B. Kosky)
Medea by D. Börtz (2016, Royal Opera Stockholm, directed by S. Larsson)
Der fliegende Holländer by R. Wagner (2017, Deutsche Oper Berlin, directed by C. Spuck)
Fiddler on the Roof, a musical by J. Bock (2017, Komische Oper Berlin, directed by B. Kosky)
Die Gezeichneten by F. Schreker (2018, Opera Zurich, directed by B. Kosky)
La bohème by G. Puccini (2018, Komische Oper Berlin; 2019, The Los Angeles Opera, both directed by B. Kosky)
Orphee aux enfers by J. Offenbach (2019, The Salzburg Festival, directed by B. Kosky)
Prince Igor by A. Borodin, Opera National de Paris, directed by B. Kosky) Boris Godunov by M. Mussorgski (2020, Opera Zurich, directed by B. Kosky)

For ballet:

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King to the music by P. Tchaikovsky (2017, Ballet Zurich, choreography by C. Spuck)
Winterreise to the music by H. Zender, F. Schubert(2018, Ballet Zurich, choreography by C. Spuck)
The Little Match Girl to the music by H. Lachenmann (2019, choreography by C. Spuck)
by P. Tchaikovsky (2020, Ballet Zurich, choreography by C. Spuck)

In 2021, Rufus Didwiszus worked at the Bolshoi for the first time, on the ballet production Orlando to the music by E. Elgar, P. Glass, B. Auerbach and E. Kats-Chernin.