Günther Schneider-Siemssen

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Günther Schneider-Siemssen at work
Schneider-Siemssen with Herbert von Karajan during a rehearsal

Günther Schneider-Siemssen (born June 7, 1926 in Augsburg ; † June 2, 2015 in Vienna ) was a German-Austrian set designer .

Life

Günther Schneider-Siemssen was born as Günther Schneider and bears the second name from his maternal grandfather, who was called Siemssen. He spent his childhood and youth in Munich and initially wanted to be a conductor. On the occasion of an interview with Clemens Krauss , he advised against it and recommended that he train as a set designer. He then studied stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich .

Schneider-Siemssen was head of equipment at the Salzburg State Theater from 1951 to 1954 , in a secondary role he also looked after the Salzburg puppet theater and then he was head of equipment in Bremen until 1960 . From 1960 he was employed by Herbert von Karajan at the Vienna State Opera and from 1962 to 1986 he was director of equipment at the Austrian Federal Theaters (including the State Opera , Volksoper , Burgtheater and Akademietheater ), and from 1965 also for the Salzburg Festival . In this function he designed countless stage sets, which became style-defining. In addition to Vienna , he worked at many other important theaters, such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York or the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires .

One of the main features of his work is the emphasis on lighting , which is more important than practical stage decoration. He developed a symbolic style that was realized by means of hand-painted projections and sophisticated special effects using large-format projectors from the Viennese manufacturer Ludwig Pani. In  1985 he first used holographic technology on the stage in a production of Hoffmann's Tales at the Salzburg Marionette Theater .

The directors with whom he primarily worked were Karajan (28 sets) and Otto Schenk (60 sets).

For his expressive Wagner interpretations he received the " Anton Seidl Prize" ("Anton Seidl Award") of the "Wagner Society of New York" in 2009 .

Private life

Günther Schneider-Siemssen had been an Austrian citizen since 1973, lived in Vienna and Seeham near Salzburg , was married and had four children. Schneider-Siemssen died shortly before his 89th birthday after a long illness in Vienna and was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in an honorary grave (group 40, number 187).

literature

  • Kurt Becsi (Hrsg.): The stage as a cosmic space: For the stage design by G. Schneider-Siemssen . Bergland-Verlag, Vienna, 1976, DNB 760430012
  • Josef Mayerhöfer (Ed.): G. Schneider-Siemssen. 30 years of stage work (= Biblos-Schriften; 96). Neugebauer, Salzburg, 1977, ISBN 978-3-85376-015-4 (exhibition catalog).
  • Kurt Pahlen, Günther Schneider-Siemssen: The Stage - My Life: Günther Schneider-Siemssen in discussions with Kurt Pahlen. Springer, Vienna / New York, 2nd edition, 2001, ISBN 978-3-211-83668-2 .

Awards

Web links

Commons : Günther Schneider-Siemssen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Ullmann: Volkshalle shows objects by the set designer Schneider-Siemssen. In: APA-OTS . October 8, 2001, accessed September 18, 2019 .
  2. ^ I. Schinnerl: Schneider-Siemssen, Günther. In: Austria Forum . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Biography. In: Schneider-Siemssen website. Archived from the original on June 3, 2015 ; accessed on September 18, 2019 (English).
  4. ↑ Prof. Günther Schneider-Siemssen. In: club-carriere.com. Retrieved June 8, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Set designer Günther Schneider-Siemssen died at the age of 88. In: SN.at . June 2, 2015, accessed September 18, 2019 . Set designer Günther Schneider-Siemssen died at the age of 88. In: derStandard.at . June 2, 2015, accessed September 18, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Schneider-Siemssen, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian stage designer
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH 2nd June 2015
Place of death Vienna