Florence von Gerkan - Stage/Costume Designer
Biography
A native of Hamburg, Florence von Gerkan studied costume design at the Berlin University of Arts with Prof. Martin Rupprecht.
In 1988, she was engaged as an assistant to Thalia Theater Hamburg, where she startet - with the production of KING LEAR - her long collaboration with Jürgen Flimm and Erich Wonder. As a member of this team, she subsequently designed costumes for ONKEL WANJA and DIE WILDENTE, followed by the first opera productions of LA TRAVIATA and Wilfried Minks’ FLEDERMAUS in Essen and Düsseldorf. Further engagements led her to the Schaubühne Berlin to collaborate with the stage director Andrea Breth for Ibsen’s HEDDA GABLER and Tchechov’s DIE MÖWE.
In the following years, von Gerkan was responsible for the costume design of international opera productions in Zürich and Vienna under stage director Jürgen Flimm: a.o. Mozart’s LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, DON GIOVANNI and COSÌ FAN TUTTE, Haydn’s L’ANIMA DEL FILOSOFO, Händel’s ALCINA and IL TRIONFO DEL TEMPO E DEL DISINGANNO, Schubert’s ALFONSO UND ESTRELLA, Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA and Offenbach’s LA PÉRICHOLE.
Other international engagements were at La Scala Milan for Berg’s WOZZECK as well as at the Metropolitan Opera New York for FIDELIO.
Florence von Gerkan created the costumes for the world premiere of Herbert Willi’s SCHLAFES BRUDER in Zürich (stage direction Cesare Lievi). Another partnership arose with the Swiss film director Daniel Schmid when she designed the costumes for his opera productions of LINDA DI CHAMOUNIX, BEATRICE DI TENDA and IL TROVATORE.
She also created the costumes for Szymanowsky’s KING ROGER at Staatstheater Stuttgart, for RING DER NIBELUNGEN in Bayreuth, L’ANIMA DEL FILOSOFO at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and for the world premiere of Cerha’s DER RIESE VOM STEINFELD at Vienna State Opera.
During the same period she worked for the first time for ballet productions: ROMEO UND JULIA and NUTCRACKER at Basel Theatre, followed by SWAN LAKE in Zürich for the famous choreographer Heinz Spoerli.
With Tatjana Gürbaca and Klaus Grünberg she worked for Purcell’s DIDO UND AENEAS at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and for the world premiere of Philippe Hersant’s DER SCHWARZE MÖNCH.
A long-standing and congenial collaboration developped between von Gerkan and the composer and stage director Heiner Goebbels. For him she created the costumes for the world premieres of HASHIRIGAKI and ERARITJARITJAKA at Théâtre Vidy in Lausanne as well as LANDSCHAFT MIT ENTFERNTEN VERWANDTEN at Grand Theatre of Geneva with Ensemble Modern. She was engaged for further world premieres with the Hilliard Ensemble for Théâtre Vidy and the Edinburgh Festival. All these productions toured repeatedly around the world. In preparation are other common projects within the framework of the Ruhrtriennale 2012-2015.
In 2010, Florence von Gerkan designed the costume for LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN at Zürich Operahouse with Thomas Langhoff (stage director) and Bernhard Kleber (set design).
In preparation also the Mozart/Da Ponte cycle with COSÌ FAN TUTTE, DON GIOVANNI and LE NOZZE DI FIGARO at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (Philipp Himmelmann, stage director, and Johannes Leiacker, set design).
In 2003, Florence von Gerkan has been appointed Professor and Head of the class for costume design at the University of Arts in Berlin.
Last updated: 22.12.2010© We kindly ask you to seek our approval for any alteration or abbreviation of the biography. Thank you for your kind understanding.