Costume Design

Marie-Luise Walek

Marie-Luise Walek comes from Vienna. While still studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in her native city she collaborated very closely with Günther Schneider-Siemssen and by now she has worked all over the world as a costume designer. She regularly worked at opera houses in Nice, Zurich and San Francisco for productions like »Katja Kabanová«, »Hérodiade«, »Salome« and »Nabucco«. In Nice, as well as for the opening of the new opera house in Shanghai, she created the costumes for Gounod's »Faust« under the direction of Pierre Médecin.

Other engagements took her, among other places, to the Vienna State Opera with »Lulu«, to Berlinʼs Deutsche Oper with »Samson et Dalila«, to the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden with »Il Ritorno dʼUlisse« in Patria, to the Bregenz Festival with »Anna Bolena«, to Zurich Opera House with a Donizetti cycle and to the New York Metropolitan Opera with »Jenůfa«. Previous work in Italy has brought her to, among others, the Teatro Bellini in Catania with »La fanciulla del West«, to the Caracalla Baths in Rome with »Cavalleria Rusticana« and »I Pagliacci« and to Milan's La Scala with »Pelléas et Mélisande«. In all this, she worked together with producers like Wolfgang Weber, Giancarlo del Monaco, Immo Karaman, Günther Rennert, Petrika Ionesco, Bruno Stefano and Pierre Médecin.

With Josef E. Köpplinger Marie-Luise Walek shares many years of work together at various opera houses and theatres, including the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg (»Show Boat«), the Hamburg Staatsoper (»LʼUpupa«) and the Vienna Volksoper (»Der Evangelimann«).

For the Gärtnerplatztheater she designed the costumes for »Onkel Präsident«, »Die Zirkusprinzessin«, »Wiener Blut« and »A Little Night Music« among others.