Born in Farmsen, Germany, Heinrich Brunke (1951-2006) started his career in 1972 as head of lighting and then lighting designer in various German theatre stages, including Hamburg Schauspielhaus, where he collaborated on the productions of Giorgio Strehler, Jürgen Flimm, Jérôme Savary, Luc Bondy, Karl-Ernst Hermann, Ari Singers, among other directors. In 1981, he embarked on an independent career and, in 1983, began a long collaboration with Robert Wilson, designing the lighting for Medea at the Opéra national de Lyon, followed by many productions: The CIVIL WarS, Death, Destruction and Detroit, Cosmopolitan Greetings, The Forest, La Nuit d’avant le jour, Orlando, The Black Rider, Le Roi Lear, Madness of Dead, Dr Faustus Lights the Lights, Don Juan ultimo, Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Bed, Loss Memory, Erwartung / Le Château de Barbe-Bleue, Time Rocker, White Raven, Œdipus Rex, Lohengrin, Pœ-Try... Heinrich Brunke also worked with many other directors, including Peter Stein, Hans Neuenfels, Wolfgang Engels, Achim Freyer, Hans Hollmann, Götz Friedrich, Jürgen Kruse, N.P. Rudolph, Ruth Berghaus, Bernard Sobel.

At the Paris Opera: The Magic Flute, 1991; Madama Butterfly, 1993; Pelléas et Mélisande, 1997