Zurich born Stefan Bolliger worked as a freelance lighting technician before he was engaged by the Thalia Theater in Hamburg in 1995. He was deputy head of lighting there from 1997 - 2006 before taking over as head of lighting and lighting design for drama at the Staatstheater in Stuttgart until 2010. Stefan Bolliger has been working as a freelance lighting designer since then. He has worked at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Theater an der Wien, Salzburg Festival, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlin and Hamburg state operas, the Semperoper in Dresden, Theater Basel, the Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerpen, New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Norske Opera in Oslo, Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the National Opera in Riga and the opera houses in Graz and Wuppertal. Stefan Bolliger is working at Oper Frankfurt for the first time.