Annette Beaufaÿs

Annette Beaufaÿs started her career as costume designer in 1976 working for “Circus Roncalli” assisting the Austrian painter Hubert Aratym. This was succeeded by working together with André Heller on “Flic Flac”, “Begnadete Körper”, “Feuertheater” and “Magneten”. André Heller is still deemed to be her artistic mentor. In 1981 the famous Austrian director Michael Haneke discovered her as a costume designer for theatre and film productions. She designed the costumes for several of his theatre plays as well as the films “Who was Edgar Allan” and “The Piano Teacher” directed by him, and his first opera production “Don Giovanni” in Paris. As a freelance costume designer, she has been responsible for over 120 theatre, opera, film and TV productions in Europe, Japan and China. She collaborated with directors such as Axel Corti, August Everding, Dietmar Pflegerl, Elke Lang, Philippe Arlaud, but also time and again with André Heller with whom she realised three large projects with Jessye Norman amongst other things.

Above all, Annette Beaufaÿs’ designs produced for the New Year’s concert, the opera ball and productions of the Staatsoper and the Volksoper as well as the Bregenz Festival have earned her a reputation in the cultural landscape of Austria.

Annette Beaufaÿs has been head of the costume workshops of the Österreichische Bundestheater (Austrian Federal Theatres) since 1993. In 1999 the costume workshops were divested as a profit centre and are treated as such as an independent commercial company within the framework of the Art for Art Theater Service GmbH. On 23 January 2008, Annette Beaufaÿs was awarded the honorary title of “Professor” by the federal minister Dr. Claudia Schmied.