Alfred Wopmann

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Alfred Wopmann (born November 23, 1936 in Wels ) is an Austrian theater director and artistic director . From 1983 to 2003, Wopmann was the artistic director of the Bregenz Festival .

Alfred Wopmann Salzmann

Live and act

Alfred Wopmann graduated in 1954 in Vienna and then studied psychology, philosophy and anthropology at the University of Vienna . At the same time he studied violin at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts . From 1959 Alfred Wopmann was a permanent substitute in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra . He participated in the premieres of the troubadour under Herbert von Karajan and the power of fate under Dimitri Mitropoulos . In 1962 Alfred Wopmann received his doctorate. phil. at the University of Vienna. In 1965 he worked as an assistant director Adolf Rott at the Burgtheater operate from 1968 as an assistant director at the Staatsoper Vienna. Assistance to Otto Schenk , Götz Friedrich and Luchino Visconti followed. He also worked as an assistant to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at the Salzburg Festival .

In 1972 he made his debut as a director with Gottfried von Einems visiting the old lady at the Dortmund Opera House . Over 65 productions at opera houses in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA followed. In 1978 Alfred Wopmann became head of the opera studio and of new productions at the Vienna State Opera.

In 1983 Alfred Wopmann succeeded Ernst Bär as director of the Bregenz Festival. In 1985, using the example of the Magic Flute with Jérôme Savary (director) and Michel Lebois (stage), he created the “Bregenz Dramaturgy” as a visually and symbolically exaggerated staging style in the open air of the Bregenz Festival. The unexpectedly great success of this production forced its repetition in 1986 and established the biennial rhythm of the game on the lake. The aim of the inflated and new appearance of the popular opera for a large audience was the symbolic representation of the whole work in order to condense and visually clarify the events on the stage so that they could be understood by everyone without artistic compromises. The production team David Pountney (direction) and Stefanos Lazaridis (stage) succeeded in further developing and deepening this process in the sense of a critical update. Using the example of the Flying Dutchman and the two freedom operas Nabucco and Fidelio, it set new highlights in the years 1989 to 1995. In 1988, Wopmann achieved the breakthrough in the genre of rarities operas on a large scale with the production of Samson and Dalila , which had to be repeated because of its great success Festspielhaus as a contrasting rail of the Bregenz dramaturgy. He helped this genre with the internationally recognized rediscoveries of La Wally , Mazeppa , Francesca da Rimini , The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitesch and of the Virgin Fewronija , Le roi Arthus , L'amore dei tre Re and the discovery of the original version of the Greek Passion to success.

In 1998 the new festival center was built. As an architecturally unique piece, the new construction of the workshop stage and the expansion of the lakeside stand to accommodate 7,000 spectators succeeded in combining three completely different theater rooms: the lake stage, the peep box stage, the festival hall and the multifunctional workshop stage for art from the period. The latter opened in the same year with the commissioned opera Nacht by Georg Friedrich Haas. Building on this triad, Wopmann developed the dramaturgically unmistakable “Gesamtkunstwerk Bregenz Festival”.

Alfred Wopmann with his wife Ingrid, 2013

In 1999/2000 the production A Masked Ball on the Seebühne with Marcello Viotti (conductor), Richard Jones / Antony McDonald (stage direction and stage) marked a high point in the history of the Bregenz Festival. The picture “of death, who wrote the book of the life of Gustav III. holds in hands ”went around the world: It appeared in“ LIFE 1999 ALBUM The Year in Pictures ”and received the award“ Stage Design of the Year ” in the critics' survey by Opernwelt magazine . With the production West Side Story 2003/4 Wopmann achieved the absolute audience and revenue record in the history of the Bregenz Festival in his farewell year. In 2004, Wopmann became a member of the Presidium of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Deputy Chairman of the University Council of the Vienna Conservatory Private University. Since 2005 he has been chairman of the board of the Theaterholding Graz consisting of the opera house, the playhouse, Next Liberty children and youth theater and the Theaterservice GmbH.

Alfred Wopmann is married to Ingrid Wopmann and has two children.

Publications

  • Basic forms of ideas about life after death , Vienna 1962. (Dissertation)
  • Theater in nature, open-air stage on Lake Constance, music on the lake , Hestia Verlag, Bayreuth, 1986.
  • The Bregenz Festival , (Ed.) Andrea Meuli, Residenz Verlag, 1995.
  • Stage worlds , Bregenz workshop; Artistic director Alfred Wopmann from 1983 to 2003 / Bregenz Festival. Wolfgang Willaschek (Ed.). Karl Forster. - Vienna: Ueberreuter, 2003.
  • Measurability of cultural success, 10 theses on Bregenz dramaturgy , Studienverlag European Forum Alpbach, 2003.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Alfred Wopmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wopmann, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian theater director and artistic director
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Wels (city)