Horst Zankl

Horst Zankl (* 1944 in Graz ; † December 4, 1987 in Vienna ) was an Austrian theater director , opera director and theater director .

Live and act

Zankl studied theater studies and directing in Vienna from 1962 to 1965 . From 1966 to 1970 he worked as an assistant director and director at the State Theater in Hanover . There he staged the world premieres of Wolfgang Bauer's Magic Afternoon (with Monika Bleibtreu ) and Peter Weiss ' Mockinpott in 1968 . He also met his partner Hertha Schell there. In 1970 Zankl staged Faith, Love and Hope by Ödön von Horváth at the Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer in Berlin .

From 1971 to 1975 he was director of the Theater am Neumarkt in Zurich . There he caused a sensation in 1971 with Peter Handke's Der Ritt über den Bodensee , with all of the leading actors having shaved heads. Further directorial work included the world premiere of Handke's Die Unreasonenten die aus (invitation to the Berlin Theatertreffen ) in 1974 , Ödön von Horváth's Die Unknown from the Seine in 1973 , Gerhard Roth's Lichtenberg in 1974, Henrik Ibsen's Die Frau vom Meer in 1974 and Tretyakov's Roar China! . Zankl introduced a self- determination and co-determination system at his theater , in which all employees and artists of the theater were allowed to vote on the program and the interests of the theater. This was revolutionary at the time and made the house known throughout the German-speaking area. Zankl performed pieces by Marieluise Fleisser , Franz Xaver Kroetz , Karl Valentin , Ödön von Horváth, Robert Walser and Peter Weiss . In addition to contemporary authors, the "classical" drama with authors such as Goethe ( Stella with Maria Bill as Luzie), Ibsen and Aristophanes was on the program.

Then Zankl worked as a freelance director. He made a name for himself primarily as a Horváth director. Among other things, he staged Horváth's Tales from the Vienna Woods (1975, with Libgart Schwarz , Branko Samarovski , Heinrich Giskes , Alexander Wagner , Edith Heerdegen , music: Peer Raben ) and Zur Schöne Aussicht (1976) as well as the world premiere of Peter Sattmann's Open in Stuttgart end (1979).

At the Theater Basel he directed performances such as Das weite Land (1976), Enquists Nacht der Tribaden (1977) and Roths Sehnsucht (1977). At the Freie Volksbühne Berlin he staged the world premiere of Reinhard Baumgart's Jettchen Gebert's story (1978), at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus Jacques Offenbach's Pariser Leben (1979), at the Vienna Burgtheater Ferdinand Raimund's Der Bauer als Millionär (1979, with Rudolf Buczolich , Lena Stolze , Attila Hörbiger ), Arthur Schnitzler's Comedy of Seduction (1980) in the set design by Hans Hollein and with costumes by Karl Lagerfeld (with Helmut Berger , Paulus Manker , Lena Stolze, Georg Schuchter ) and Botho Strauss ' Der Park (1985).

In 1980/81 he was part of the directing quartet of the co-determination model at the Frankfurter Schauspiel , where he staged Johann Nestroy's Der Zerrissene (with Friedrich Karl Praetorius and Almut Zilcher ), pieces by Herbert Achternbusch , Arthur Schnitzler's Der Reigen (with Almut Zilcher, Suzanne von Borsody , Paulus Manker ) and Ödön von Horváths Don Juan comes from the war (with Peter Brombacher ). In 1985 he staged the world premiere of Elfriede Jelinek's Burgtheater in Bonn , where he most recently worked .

He died of heart failure at the age of 43.

Opera productions

Zankl made his debut as an opera director on May 13, 1977 at the Paris Opera ( Palais Garnier ) with Die Zauberflöte , Arik Brauer was the outfitter of this production and Karl Böhm the conductor (in the cast including Horst Laubenthal as Tamino, Kiri Te Kanawa as Pamina, Martti Talvela as Sarastro, Edda Moser as Queen of the Night). Zankl had great success in Frankfurt am Main in 1978 with Handel's Julius Cäsar and in 1980 Castor et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau , each with Nikolaus Harnoncourt as conductor and Erich Wonder as stage designer.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Zankl died of heart failure . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 7, 1987, p. 24 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Rolf Liebermann: And everyone expects a party . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna 1981, pp. 118-121, 245.

literature

• Ute Kröger: Horst Zankl . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 3, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 2137 f.
• Theater lexicon. Authors, directors, actors, dramaturges, stage designers, critics. Edited by C. Bernd Sucher . By Christine Dössel and Marietta Piepenbrock with the assistance of Jean-Claude Kuner and C. Bernd Sucher. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-03322-3 .