Karl-Ernst Herrmann

Karl-Ernst Herrmann, born in Neukirch, in Upper Lusatia, in 1936, is a German stage director and set designer whose operatic work is associated above all with the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. He trained in design and stage design at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Berlin, under teachers such as Rudi Wagner and Willi Schmidt, and began his career in dramatic theatre.

His early career took him to Ulm, where he began designing in 1961. In 1969, in Bremen, he met the director Peter Stein, with whom he enjoyed a long collaboration; his production of Im Dickicht der Städte, an early work by Brecht, made a strong impact. After working with Stein at the Schaubühne in Berlin, he left that company in 1978 to work as an independent professional in opera and theatre. His first major operatic project was Das Rheingold, directed by Stein, the first part of the Ring that the Paris Opéra launched in 1976; the cycle was interrupted after Die Walküre, directed by Klaus-Michael Grüber.

In 1978 he designed Così fan tutte for Luc Bondy in Brussels, a city that became the centre of his activity. There he made his debut as both director and set designer of the same opera with Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. The success of that production led to a Mozart cycle that included Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La finta giardiniera, Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro, and which is considered one of the most original of the 1980s and early 1990s. He also directed La traviata and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice there.

His work, produced in close collaboration with his wife, Ursel Herrmann, and with Geoffrey Layton, is distinguished by a strongly neoclassical visual language and by the creation of a temporary ensemble of actor-singers. His productions formed the basis of Gérard Mortier's period at the helm of La Monnaie. Significantly, Mortier took his Brussels versions of La clemenza di Tito and La finta giardiniera to the Salzburg Festival in 1992, with which he inaugurated his tenure.