Jens Kilian
Set Designer
© Waltraut Eising
Dresden born Jens Kilian, who designed highly acclaimed sets for the Frankfurt Der Ring des Nibelungen (available on CD & DVD – OehmsClassics) and this production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, returned to the company most recently for Les Troyens. After studying at the Berlin-Weißensee University of Arts he worked building sets at the DEFA in Babelsberg. He has been working as an international freelance set and costume designer for opera, drama and dance since 1987. Directors with whom he has worked over the years have included Christof Nel (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Parsifal, Salome, Tristan und Isolde and Sallinen's Kullervo at Oper Frankfurt, Der Freischütz at the Komische Oper Berlin, Der Rosenkavalier in Hannover and Salome in Seoul), Joachim Schlömer (The Indian Queen in Basel, Parsifal in Essen and Das Rheingold in Stuttgart), Christian Schuller (Der Freischütz, Nabucco, Pique Dame in Halle), Vera Nemirova (The Makropoulos Case at Theater Freiburg, L’Africaine at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lohengrin at Theater Basel, La traviata at the Staatstheater in Mainz, Tosca at Theater Bremen and the Ring in Frankfurt) and Gil Mehmert, Martin Kušej, Jossi Wieler, Dimiter Gotscheff, Johan Simons, Karin Beier and Dieter Wedel. Recent productions have included West Side Story at Theater Dortmund, Catch me if you can at the Staatstheater in Nürnberg, Eine Nacht in Venedig / A Night in Venice at the Aalto Musiktheater in Essen, Don Pasquale at Oper Stuttgart and L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Staatsoper in Berlin. Many of the productions in which Jens Kilian was involved were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen (a big honour). The musical Das Wunder von Bern / The Miracle of Bern, directed by Gil Mehmert, won the Best Set Design award from the Deutsche Musical Akademie in 2015.