Tchernaev Mihail

Some people associate his name with architecture and painting, others with designing theatre scenes and costumes. However, his artistic activities are even broader - he is also involved in directing, poetry, and in a number of artistic disciplines he is also a teacher. The most appropriate description of his artistic activity is therefore: multitalent. He was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, long before the fall of the Iron Curtain, he worked on both sides of the border. At the beginning of the 1990s he created the set design for the original musical Foam of Days in Prague. Soon afterwards, he won a major award in Hamburg for his design of an ancient fairground for the Hansa-Park. In Warsaw and Prague his name is associated with the productions of The Blue Bird by the Flemish avant-garde playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck. In 1994 he designed the set for the Czech premiere of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar at the Spirál Theatre. He has lived and worked in Munich, Germany for many years. He created the scenic design for Richard Strauss's opera Daphne for the National Theatre there, and designed the set for the same opera for La Scala in Milan. For the spectacular open-air production of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, he designed not only the set and costumes, but also a special multifunctional stage, the construction of which he supervised himself. For the Maritim Hotel in Bad Wildungen he created the frescoes for the grandiose dome of Prince Charles. Nor is he a stranger to new media. For the Eurovision broadcast to celebrate the admission of ten new member states in 2004, his computer-animated paintings created a spectacular backdrop for the show.