Henrik Ahr

After training as a chef, Henrik Ahr, who was born in Bensberg, initially worked as a freelance artist and studied architecture in Leipzig. He has been working as a stage designer since 2000. His first stage designs were for the Neue Szene Leipzig and the Theaterhaus Jena. Arthur Schnitzler's play "Liebelei" at the Thalia Theater Hamburg (director: Michael Thalheimer) was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2003 and for the drama "Der Weibsteufel" (director: Mateja Koljeznik) in Ljubljana, written by Karl Schönherr, Henrik Ahr received the Borštnikova Prize for Best Stage Design in 2011. In addition to his work at internationally renowned theatres and opera houses, he has been professor and head of the department of stage and costume design, film and exhibition architecture at the University Mozarteum Salzburg since 2010. Engagements have taken him to the Grand-Théâtre de Genève, Deutsche Theater Berlin, Theater Basel, Thalia Theater, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Theater an der Wien, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Vlaamse Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam and the Munich Opera Festival 2019, among others.
He has a long-standing collaboration with Christof Loy, Michael Thalheimer and Tatjana Gürbaca, and some of his stage spaces have already been seen at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein: Janáček's "Katja Kabanova" and R. Strauss' "Arabella" (director: Tatjana Gürbaca) as well as Verdi's "Otello" and "Macbeth" (director: Michael Thalheimer) presented themselves in Henrik Ahr's stage design in recent years. In the 2023/24 season, he is responsible for the spatial design of Wagner's "Parsifal" and Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" (director: Michael Thalheimer) as well as Janáček's "Jenůfa" (director: Tatjana Gürbaca).