Benedikt Zehm

Benedikt Zehm initially completed a degree in chemistry at the Technical University in Munich. In 1990 he began working at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where since 1999 he has been a Master Electrician (lighting). He has also worked on productions at the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Theater St Gallen, the Graz Opera, the Berlin State Opera, the Salzburg Festival and La Monnaie in Brussels.

He has created lighting designs for productions including La traviata and L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich, L’elisir d’amore at the Ludwigsburg Festival, Giovanna d’Arco at the Wrocław Opera, the world premiere of Alexander Strauch’s Neda – der Ruf, die Stimme at the Munich Biennale, Così fan tutte at the Korean National Opera in Seoul, Le nozze di Figaro at the Theater an der Wien, Rigoletto at the Glyndebourne Festival, Paul Dessau’s Die Verurteilung des Lukullus at the Stuttgart State Opera and Káťa Kabanová at the Opéra national de Lyon.

He has also designed lighting for numerous ballet productions, including Gefährliche Liebschaften and Schlafes Bruder at the Theater St. Gallen, Die Jahreszeiten, Undine and Carmen at the Graz Opera and Duo for the Bavarian State Ballet.

At the Bavarian State Opera, he has also designed lighting for Die schweigsame Frau, the open-air production Wagner vs. Verdi, Pelléas et Mélisande, Hauke Berheide’s Mauerschau, Mauricio Kagel’s Mare Nostrum, Saskia Bladt and Torsten Herrmann’s Tonguecat, Menotti’s The Consul, Nikolaus Brass’s Die Vorübergehenden, Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon, Miroslav Srnka’s Singularity, Georg Friedrich Haas’s Thomas and a double bill of Respighi’s Lucrezia and Orff’s Der Mond.

He has a close working relationship with Romeo Castellucci, with whom he has collaborated on productions including Scarlatti’s Il primo omicidio at the Berlin State Opera and the Paris Opéra, Tannhäuser at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Das Rheingold at La Monnaie, Le lacrime di Eros at the Dutch National Opera, Pelléas et Mélisande at La Scala, Milan, and Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival.