GLIESE, ROCHUS

(1891-1976)

Designer. Gliese was among the most accomplished of stage designers in theExpressioniststyle during the Weimar Republic period, creating several distinctive designs forJürgen Fehlingat theBerlinState Theater in the 1920s. He also designed more than a dozen silent films, working as assistant director onDas Kabinett des Dr. Caligari(The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920). His most distinctive stage designs were for Fehling'sErnst Barlachproductions in the mid-1920s, employing unprecedented abstraction. He followed F. W. Murnau to Hollywood in the late 1920s, designingThe Main EventandSunrisefor him; the latter earned Gliese an Academy Award nomination. His stage design work blossomed under the Third Reich, as he created several astonishing settings forGustaf Gründgensat the Berlin State Theater. ForKing Lear, he mixed neo-Baroque extravagance with minimalist abstraction; forEgmont, he created a neo-Romanticreplication of central Brussels, including live horses on the stage. HisDer Raub der Sabinerinnen(The Rape of the Sabine Women) employed a Biedermeier coziness. He continued film design work in the 1930s, though with less frequency. Most distinctive among his film art direction in the 1930s wasTanz auf dem Vulkan(Dance on the Volcano) with Gründgens. Gliese continued working as a guest designer for several theaters during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably for theBurgtheaterinViennaand theMunichOpera.