Alexander Kuchinka

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Alexander Kuchinka, 2016

Alexander Kuchinka (born October 29, 1967 in Klagenfurt ) is an Austrian actor , director , author , musician and cabaret artist .

His artistic career is that of an autodidact . Before beginning his theater career, he completed training at the Pedagogical Academy in Klagenfurt from 1986 to 1989 . He has lived and worked mainly in Vienna since 1992 .

Areas of activity

actor

His first professional engagement brought him in 1987 to the City Theater Klagenfurt ( The village teacher of Wilhelm Pevny ) and from there to the comedy play Porcia (both under the directorship of Herbert Wochinz ). With the comedy Der Bürger als Edelmann von Molière (starring Walter Giller ), he toured the German-speaking area from 1989 to 1992 in a total of almost 200 performances with Konzertdirektion Landgraf . After he moved to Vienna in 1992, there followed piece contracts for the Stockerau Festival ( Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare , 1994), the Wiener Metropol ( Im Weißen Rössl by Ralph Benatzky , 1996) and the Volkstheater Wien ( Der Seidenschrei by Lida Winiewicz , 1999) . Since the beginning of his directorial activity, he has repeatedly taken on smaller and larger roles in his own productions, from Leopold im Weißen Rössl (1996) to Cyrano (2001) to Tim in the theater-in-theater comedy Der nackte Wahnsinn (2015). Most recently he expanded his role repertoire with Giesecke im Weißen Rössl (2016/17), "Gott Kupfer" in Felix Mitterer's stage version of Torberg's novel Der Schüler Gerber (2016) or the detective Gasselhuber in the operetta posse Die Gigerln von Wien (2017). In autumn 2018 he was an acting stage musician in a touring version of Arthur Miller's play Hexenjagd , in spring he took on the lead role in a production of the operetta Der Teufel auf Erden by Franz von Suppè at the Chemnitz Opera House , for which he was also responsible as the reworking of the libretto.

cabaret artist

In 1990 he appeared in the Klagenfurt theater in the Landhauskeller with the Schwarz program , but for the first time as a musical solo cabaret artist. His literary and piano humor style was often associated with Georg Kreisler at this time and, from 1990 onwards, was presented to a larger audience in the ORF series Comedy Express . In 1987 he was brought to Vienna as a voice imitator for the satirical ORF puppet series Telewisch'n . Other programs followed, in which he became more and more emancipated in terms of both style and content. In 1995 he won first prize at the Ralph Benatzky Chanson Competition in Hamburg , and in 2005 the first CD Der Herr Kuchenkarl was released by Preiser Records . As part of various cabaret programs , he repeatedly appears with artists such as Agnes Palmisano or Robert Kolar .

Director

With his own basement theater version of the operetta Im Weißen Rössl by Ralph Benatzky in 1996 in the Klagenfurt Theater im Landhauskeller , in which he also played the leading role, he laid the foundation for his own summer stage scherzo , which until 2006 served as a playground and springboard for numerous young, mainly Austrian, artists served and presented productions of musical theater . Alexander Kuchinka was able to use this springboard himself by staging the hit revue Sing, Baby, sing at the Klagenfurt City Theater in 2003 based on his own book , which was extended several times due to its great success and was also shown at the Wiener Kammerspiele in 2003 . This was followed, also at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, by the productions of the musicals Emil and the Detectives by Marc Schubring and Wolfgang Adenberg (Austria premiered in 2005 ) and Cinderella by Thomas Pigor (2008).

At the stage Baden (City Theater) , he was in 2010 with the premiere of the fairy-tale opera The beautiful Vasilisa Pavel Singer and Thomas Jorda and 2012 with a new adaptation of the children's opera Black Peter by Norbert Schultze and Walter Lieck entrusted. In 2015 there was a new production of the classic operetta Das Land des Smiles by Franz Lehár , Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda , and in 2018 another adaptation of the operetta A Woman Who Knows What She Wants from Oscar Straus and Alfred Grünwald . 2019 he directed, under their own participation, Kammerlichtspiele the comedy classic in Klagenfurt jazz club (slightly abridged) Shakespeare's complete works , and, by his own libretto, the Chemnitz Opera House the premiere of the children's opera The Fire Department is the coffee cold (after the children's classic by Hannes Hüttner ) with music by Oliver Ostermann.

A long-term collaboration connected him from 2004 with the chanteuse Heilwig Pfanzelter , for whom he was responsible for a number of programs as a director, partly also as a writer, most recently in 2009 in Paris, Paris and in 2011 the stars are still shining , as well as with the Austrian women's comedy trio Pumpkin Parasons , for which he staged five programs between 2009 and 2013.

author

Alexander Kuchinka already had experience as a cabaret artist in small forms ( poems , satires , chansons ), and by editing textbooks for his productions he soon found his own full-length theater texts. Fra Diavolo (1989, after François Auber ) was already a definitive new version of the text, and with respect. Rare. The Comedian Harmonists (premiered in 1999 in the Konzerthaus Klagenfurt ) he presented his first play with Heiko Wohlgemuth in 1999 . The production also made a guest appearance at the Vienna Metropol , and the play has since been staged by several German theaters, including the Landesbühne Esslingen .

This was followed by an increasing number of commissioned works , such as the aforementioned Sing, Baby, sing or, together with Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz, the new German translation of the musical Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser (first performance in 2008 at the Bielefeld Theater and 2009 at the Vienna Volksoper ). In 2011 he presented a new translation of the musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change in his own production in the Vienna Metropol . 2015 World premiere of the reworking of the operetta Cagliostro in Vienna by Johann Strauss (son), commissioned by the Dresden State Operetta . In 2017, on behalf of the Tyrolean Festival Erl , he edited Richard Wagner's music drama Tristan und Isolde for the musical comedy program Liebestod im Rettungsboot .

Also commissioned were his lyrics for the musical premiere Der Mann mit dem Lachen (based on Victor Hugo , book by Tilmann von Blomberg , composition by Frank Nimsgern , musical director: Peter Christian Feigel ) in April 2019 at the Dresden State Operetta and - at the same time - the Libretto revision of the operetta Der Teufel auf Erden by Franz von Suppè at the Chemnitz Opera House as well as the libretto for the children's opera. Coffee gets cold at the fire brigade (based on Hannes Hüttner , with music by Oliver Ostermann), also at the Chemnitz Opera House.

Musician

For his main concern, the creative combination of music and stage, Alexander Kuchinka always brought his own musicality into play. In 1998 he was employed for a Comedian Harmonists theater production at the Schlosstheater Celle not only as a piano actor but also as musical director . As a composer of his own cabaret chansons , but also of settings of classical texts ( Der Knabe im Moor by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , 1983, or Max and Moritz von Wilhelm Busch , 1990), he already had experience in the small form; biographical farce The Marx Brothers: Quiet on the set! a complete stage and interlude music before, and with Cyrano (after Edmond Rostand ) finally his first own musical.

Together with Daniel Große Boymann , four musicals were created between 2005 and 2007, and in 2008 Alexander Kuchinka produced almost two hours of accompanying music for the silent film Hoffmann's Tales by Max Neufeld from 1923 as a composition commissioned by the SBOK (Symphonic Wind Orchestra Klagenfurt) . In 2014 he contributed the stage music for his productions of Zerbinetta's Liberation and Katzenzungen and was involved as an executive musician in the performance series in Haag and Berndorf . He also appears again and again as musical director and piano accompanist, both for chanson evenings (including Markus Pol , Sona MacDonald or Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz ) and for scenic stage programs.

In 2015, his latest musical, Zzaun! (together with Tilmann von Blomberg ) the "Creators" musical competition in the Schmidt Theater in Hamburg, the world premiere took place on March 3, 2018 under the direction of Andreas Gergen and the musical direction of Peter Christian Feigel in the new house of the Dresden State Operetta . For a theater tour of Konzertdirektion Landgraf , he designed a stage music concept for the play " Witches Hunt " by Arthur Miller under the direction of Volkmar Kamm .

Previous work

Roles (selection)

Productions (selection)

Concepts / books / translations (selection)

Compositions (selection)

  • 2018 witch hunt (incidental music)
  • 2015 fence! (Musical)
  • 2014 cat tongues (vocal interludes)
  • 2014 Zerbinetta's Liberation (incidental music)
  • 2010 What will be? (musical school history for piano, speaker and children's choir)
  • 2009 Die Schildbürger (partial setting for piano, speaker and children's choir)
  • 2008 Hoffmann's Tales (silent film music)
  • 2007 piano and forte (musical)
  • 2007 The Visit of the Shah (Musical)
  • 2006 Rössl - rejodelt (musical)
  • 2006 The Bartered Grandfather (vocal interludes)
  • 2005 Odysseus goes crazy (musical)
  • 2001 Cyrano (musical)
  • 2000 The Marx Brothers: Quiet on the set! (Incidental music and singing)
  • 1989 It was the lark (vocal interludes)
  • 1987 The Little Prince (piano music)
  • 1985 Max and Moritz (setting for voice and piano)
  • 1983 Der Knabe im Moor (Ballad setting)

Musical direction / piano accompaniment (selection)

Solo programs

  • 2005 Mr. Kuchenkarl
  • 1997 trivial
  • 1995 No cabaret
  • 1992 gray pears
  • 1990 Black, but warm

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kuchinka, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor, director, author, musician and cabaret artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Klagenfurt