Claus Helmut Drese

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Claus Helmut Drese (born December 25, 1922 in Aachen ; † February 10, 2011 in Horgen , Switzerland ) was a German opera and theater director, director and author .

Life

Claus Helmut Drese grew up in Aachen and studied German , philosophy and history in Cologne , Bonn and Marburg / Lahn from 1941 to 1946 . He did his doctorate on the concept of the tragic in the new German drama . In 1950 he married the photographer Helga Lautz.

In 1946 he began his theater career as a dramaturge at the Marburger Schauspiel , moved to the Osnabrück Theater am Domhof and in 1952 to the Nationaltheater Mannheim . There he published the Festschrift for the opening of the New National Theater in 1957, in which over 100 international playwrights participated. From 1959 to 1963 Drese was artistic director at the Heidelberg City Theater .

As artistic director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (1962–1968) he took the International May Festival to a new level by inviting Eastern European productions. In Wiesbaden he also made a name for himself as an opera director with productions of Die Frau ohne Schatten , Der Rosenkavalier and Tristan und Isolde .

From 1968 to 1975 he was general director of the Cologne City Theater . He brought in the opera , among other things, a sensational series of Mozart productions with conductor István Kertész and director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle out as well as performances by the likes of Margaret Price and Lucia Popp . In drama , the Wallenstein trilogy, directed by Hansgünther Heyme, received special international attention during this time .

Drese was director at the Zurich Opera House from 1975 to 1986 . Outstanding new productions were the productions of all known stage works by Claudio Monteverdi , whose musical direction in line with historical performance practice was Nikolaus Harnoncourt and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle . A cycle with works by Claudio Monteverdi was shown and filmed at the Wiener Festwochen, the Edinburgh Festival, the Berliner Festwochen and at La Scala in Milan . During this time he also tried to renovate and expand the old Zurich City Theater, which was rewarded in 1982 with a positive referendum.

From 1986 to 1991 Drese was director of the Vienna State Opera . In 1984 he was hired for this position by the then Minister of Education, Helmut Zilk . He engaged Claudio Abbado as musical director and reformed the repertoire of the Vienna State Opera in terms of a moderate stagione system . Outstanding productions here were Chowanschtschina by Modest Mussorgski, Fierrabras by Franz Schubert, Der ferne Klang by Franz Schreker, Il viaggio a Reims by Gioacchino Rossini, which were discussed in the press as extensively as a cycle of the eight best-known operas by Mozart. Drese also brought Nikolaus Harnoncourt to the conductor's podium at the Vienna State Opera for the first time, who in February 1987 directed a production of Mozart's Idomeneo that was classified as sensational by both critics and the public, and at the same time controversial . During Dres's time as director, influential directors of music theater came to the State Opera, including Harry Kupfer , Johannes Schaaf , Luca Ronconi , Karl-Ernst Herrmann and Jürgen Flimm . At the same time, major conductors were hired for the first time at the State Opera, including Seiji Ozawa , Colin Davis and Sylvain Cambreling . Dresden's activity in Vienna, which was severely hostile to parts of the Viennese press, was ended in 1991 by the political amalgamation of the Volksoper and Staatsoper under the direction of Eberhard Waechter . Eberhard Waechter and Ioan Holender were appointed as his successors by Hilde Hawlicek , who was the SPÖ education minister at the time , and they initially reversed many of Dresden's innovations. However, these were reintroduced after Waechter's death. This finally led to the financial and administrative independence of the State Opera that Drese had already proposed during his tenure.

On the occasion of his departure from Vienna, Drese was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera . As such, in November 2005 he took part in the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the reopening of the Haus am Ring.

From 1991 to 1996 Drese took over the artistic planning of the new Megaro Mousikis music center and several productions.

Claus Helmut Drese had two sons and lived with his wife in Switzerland until his death. Most recently he was mainly active as an author. His estate as artistic director, dramaturge, director and author is in the archive of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.

Works

  • Theater, theater ... lectures, essays, comments by an artistic director . Atlantis-Musikbuch-Verlag, Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-254-00109-5 .
  • In the palace of feelings. Experiences and revelations of a Viennese opera director . Piper, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-492-03695-3 .
  • ... deliberately and by chance ... 50 years of theater and opera stories . Dittrich, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-920862-24-4 .
  • Echoes. Five artist fates. Narratives . Dittrich, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-920862-44-9 .
  • Fine years. Encounters - experiences - productions 2007–1932 . Dittrich, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-937717-97-5 .
  • Monsieur Simon Simon. A European life 1894-1994. As told by Claus Helmut Drese . Dittrich, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-937717-63-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claus Helmut Drese died , OE1.ORF.at of February 17, 2011

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Drese, Claus Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera and theater director, director, author
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 2011
Place of death Horgen , Switzerland