Herbert Wernicke (24 March 1946 – 16 April 2002) was a German
opera director and a
set and
costume designer.[1] He was born in
Auggen,
Baden-Württemberg.[2] He studied piano, flute, and directing at the conservatory in
Braunschweig and set design at the academy in
Munich. After starting out as set and costume designer in
Landshut and
Wuppertal, and directing his first play in
Darmstadt, he directed his first opera,
Handel's Belshazzar, in 1978 in Darmstadt. The majority of Wernicke's artistic work was at the theater in
Basel, where he lived since 1990.
On 16 April 2002 Wernicke died unexpectedly at age 56 after a short, serious illness in the hospital in Basel.[3] On 5 May 2002
Theater Basel premiered Israel in Egypt in the fragmentary form left by Wernicke at his death. He was buried in a cemetery in Auggen, his birth city.