Rainer Sellmaier

Rainer Sellmaier studied art history and drama at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and then set and costume design at Salzburg’s Mozarteum.  

He has been collaborating with Tobias Kratzer since 2004 on joint projects that have taken them both to Brussels, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Berlin (the Komische Oper and the Deutsche Oper), Sweden, Estonia and France. 

In 2008 he and Tobias Kratzer won the coveted Ring Award at the International competition for stage direction and stage design in Graz. He has created sets and costumes for numerous productions including Anna Bolena at the Lucerne Theatre, Der Rosenkavalier at the Bremen Theatre, La Forza del destino at the Frankfurt Opera, Tannhäuser at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival, Guillaume Tell at the Lyon Opera, and Fidelio at the Royal Opera House in London.  

He has received numerous nominations from the magazine Opernwelt for costume design—specifically for his productions of Tannhäuser at the Bremen Theatre and Götterdämmerung at the Staatstheater in Karlsruhe—and the set designs for Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Amsterdam, L’Africaine at the Frankfurt Opera, Gluck’s Telemaco at the Schwetzingen Festival and Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival.