Ches Themann

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Ches Themann (* 1954 in Warsaw ) is an Austrian opera director and teacher for musical theater .

Life

Themann was born in Warsaw as the son of an old Austrian family of artists and diplomats from Vienna , Prague , Lemberg and Tschernowitz. One of his mother's cousins ​​was Oskar Teller , founder of the cabaret “Die Arche”, whose daughter was the opera singer Friedl Teller . He spent his childhood in Germany , Italy , Spain and Switzerland before his parents settled in Vienna, where he first attended the Vienna International School , before moving to the Amerlinggymnasium, where he received his first music lessons from the composer Horst Ebenhöh . After graduating from high school in modern language in Salzburg , he studied music theory , guitar , instrumental and vocal pedagogy , as well as conducting and music theater directing at the Mozarteum , and also musicology at the University of Salzburg . His teachers included composers such as Cesar Bresgen , Franz Richter Herf , Ernst Ludwig Leitner and Helmut Eder . Another composer, Gerhard Wimberger, was his teacher of conducting, he received his training as a director from Robert H. Pflanzl (son of the bassist , student and assistant to director Günther Rennert ).

In addition to his studies, Themann took on a first position as assistant director at the Salzburg Festival in Hellbrunn , where he was the last assistant to director Oscar Fritz Schuh for years. He spent further years of apprenticeship as an assistant a. a. by Wolfgang Glück , Imo Moszkowicz , Ernö Weil , Günther Könemann, Wolfgang Weber , Wolfgang Kersten , John Cox and, in Italy, Vera Bertinetti and Renzo Giacchieri. In 1982, immediately after completing his studies, Themann received his first engagement as an assistant director at the Salzburg State Theater under the direction of Federik Mirdita . This position enabled him to work for the first time at the Salzburg Festival , where he was the director of evening performances for numerous opera productions until 1986. Other commissions in similar positions led him parallel to the Carinthian Summer Ossiach , as well as the director of new productions at international opera houses and festivals such as the Teatro Filarmonico Verona and the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata .

Since 1986 he has held the positions of director of scenic studies and scheduler for the scenic service in the operations office, as well as director of music theater at the Salzburg State Theater, in which he prepared numerous new productions and resumptions for performance in all Salzburg venues (to be mentioned are Die Fledermaus im Gr Festspielhaus , Hermann Preys Figaro in the Landestheater and Mozart's Il re pastore for the Salzburg Mozart Week ). After his contract at the Landestheater ended, he was stage director of opera tours for the Jungbluth Agency for two years (1991 through Japan for the Mozart Year and 1992 to Bilbao and Seville for the World Exhibition ). Since then, Themann has worked internationally as a guest, both as a director and as a teacher. From 1996 to 2010 he headed the agendas for science and art at the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Salzburg and initiated collaborations and projects between Austrian and Polish cultural institutions. In 2002, he was responsible for the organization of the Salzburg events for the Polish Year 2002 in preparation for Poland's accession to the EU . In 2015, Ches Themann initiated a cooperation between the Polish Institute and the Pygmalion Theater in Vienna on the occasion of the anniversary year "250 years of public theater in Poland". He curated the festival weeks "Mrozek-Tribute", to which he also contributed a compilation of highlights from the complete works of Slawomir Mrozek under the title Mrozek-Revue in his own production as a central contribution, and led a panel discussion in the supporting program Subject “Theater and Politics in Poland”. For the commemorative publication for the anniversary year It Was Life, No Drama , he wrote the article “Reflections” on the importance of Slawomir Mrozek for today's theater.

In 2016 Themann dedicated his production of Slawomir Mrozek's play The Ambassador in Villingen-Schwenningen to his longtime friend, the architect and set designer Horst Lechner . Lechner was employed as a set designer, but died during the preparatory work. Ches Themann completed the set itself in Lechner's sense.

Teaching, publications, start-ups

Ches Themann developed his own new methodology for performing means for music theater. He developed this methodology at the summer academy in Fermo . At the International Summer Academy Mozarteum it was presented to the professional world as part of his teaching activities there.

  • Landesmusikschulwerk Salzburg (including teacher training)
  • Accademia Internazionale d'Estate di Fermo
  • International Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg
  • Opera studio of the Theater National du Luxembourg 2002
  • Mozarteum University Salzburg (guest semester 2008)
  • Guest courses in the singing classes of the Private Music University Vienna, Prayner Conservatory Vienna, Teachers' Association St. Gallen a. a. with singing professors such as Manfred Equiluz, Patricia Wise, Norman Shetler (Lied), Helena Lazarska, Christiana Serafin de Ocampo.

Numerous publications for programs , festival almanacs and educational writings were created in the course of his directing and teaching activities . Book publication as co-editor and co-author : None his form. Urban development on the border , Pustet 1997 (as the end result of a guest activity as a lecturer and guest critic at the ETH Zurich at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Planning).

In December 2011 he and his colleagues founded the Ensemble Szene XX - The New Chamber Opera of Europe , based in Vienna, which is supposed to maintain and promote the small-format genres of music theater across Europe and to make them accessible again for use in teaching.

Directorial work (selection)

Classical repertoire

World premieres

Ches Themann's works are under the impression that the numerous composers have left among his teachers. As a result, he stayed in contact with the musicians of his time and generation. Numerous world premieres were the result. His staging of the world premiere of Franz Hummels On the Beautiful Blue Danube (based on Ödön von Horváth ) at the Frankfurt Feste was voted the best world premiere of the year in 1994 by Opernwelt magazine .

  • Klemens Vereno : Opera parody Il Cor Mangiato - The eaten heart (Salzburg 1979)
  • Cesar Bresgen: Salzburg Passion (Salzburg 1983). This production was filmed by ORF in 1984 as a feature film at the original locations of the action.
  • Robert Stolz : Wiener Café (posthumously in collaboration with the composer's family on his 110th birthday): Staatstheater Breslau, Operettenhaus, December 1989
  • Axel Seidelmann : Job (Neue Oper Wien, Festival Klangbogen 1994)
  • Hans Zinkl: Music for a While ( Welser Stadttheater Greif 1994)
  • Kurt Böhm: The Cold Heart ( Kiel Opera House , December 1995)
  • Michael Hazod: Asylum (Anton Bruckner Centrum Ansfelden , Bruckner's birthplace , 2001)
  • Erling Wold : Pontius Pilatus (Theatrical Uprising Wels 2002)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (Document: personal visits from Oskar Teller to the Themann family in Vienna, personal visits from Themann to Friedl Teller in Tel-Aviv, Oskar Teller's estate in the exile library in the Literaturhaus Vienna).
  2. ↑ südkurier.de
personal data
SURNAME Themann, Ches
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera director and teacher for music theater
DATE OF BIRTH 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw