Jarg Pataki

Jarg Palman Pataki (* 14. December 1962 in Basel ) is a Swiss opera and theater director also focusing on avant-garde - puppet and object theater .

Life

Pataki was born and raised in Basel as the son of a Jewish-Hungarian father and a German mother. He studied choral conducting at the Conservatories of Basel and Geneva, founded the “Ensemble Vocal Contrastes” while still studying, concerts and radio appearances in Switzerland, France and Germany, then studied acting at the École Supérieur d'Art Dramatique Genève and immediately afterwards acting direction at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin . He lives in Geneva and Munich and works at the Freiburg Theater, Stuttgart State Theater, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Staatsschauspiel Hanover, Meininger Theater , Residenztheater Munich, Theater Freiburg , Lucerne Theater and the Schauspielhaus Hamburg .

In his early years, Pataki's directorial work focused primarily on the experimental interplay of actors and life-size puppets. Inspired by the Japanese no-theater and the bunraku, he developed an independent contemporary European theater form. Language, movement and space are stylized to a high degree, actors and puppets stand opposite each other in a context of strong visuals and are hardly distinguishable. This does not lead to the actor becoming incapacitated, but to a deepening archaization that traces the foundations of human existence. Particularly notable examples of this style were Das Totenhaus (Lucerne 2000) and Kurzdramen (Munich 2001), both pieces by the French avant-garde author Philippe Minyana. Pataki also carried out this phase of his work in theory in his text The Puppet as a Model of Drama : The actor should move away from the currently prevailing voyeuristic perspective. The idea must arise in the mind of the viewer. The doll as an object resembles a musical instrument that has to be made to sound precisely. Working with puppets is also a model for working with living actors: "The actor has to learn to play himself as an instrument."

In a second phase, Pataki experimented with the surreal potential of object theater. He no longer tried to understand the human subject as the center of the universe, but showed that all parts of this world are equally animated and in constant interaction. To do this, he transformed the space and all objects in it, including people, into complexes led by puppeteers. In this way, he created a feeling of opacity and asked which forces actually control our human existence. The invention of human double and multiple beings consisting of actors and puppeteers was particularly impressive and innovative. At the same time, Pataki continued to experiment with formal speech. He worked primarily with novel texts, which he left in their original mixture of prose and dialogue and transformed into choral scores. Outstanding works of this time were America based on the novel by Franz Kafka (Lucerne 2002), Jakob von Gunten based on the novel by Robert Walser (Lucerne 2003) and Danton's death by Georg Büchner (Meiningen 2004).

In his third phase, Pataki, who had previously staged operas several times, began to incorporate musical-theatrical elements into his work. Orchestra, opera choir, singers, actors and puppeteers formed a total work of art, a little more popular than in his earlier works, but still unmistakable in their stylistic peculiarities. Important works of this time were Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship years based on the novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Hanover 2005), The Process based on the novel by Franz Kafka with music by Krzysztof Penderecki (Freiburg 2006), Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen with music by Edward Grieg ( Freiburg 2007) and The Tempest by William Shakespeare with music by Jean Sibelius (Freiburg 2008).

Pataki's work is currently based on two strands. On the one hand, pure acting that deals with essential political issues - here in particular his productions of Buddenbrooks based on the novel by Thomas Mann (Freiburg 2009) - on the other hand, the questioning of the conventions of music theater - in his production of the Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (Hamburg 2010) he partially deconstructs the musical texture, operates with sound surfaces coming from the avant-garde and free jazz and thereby creates completely new sound impressions. He is also increasingly staging classical opera. In the 2010/11 winter semester he was a professor at the Dresden University of Fine Arts.

Productions (selection)

• Bavarian State Theater : Short Dramas I (Philippe Minyana)
• Deutsches Theater Berlin: Time and the Room ( Botho Strauss )
• Théâtre du Grutli Genève: Le bon Dieu de Manhattan by Ingeborg Bachmann
• Lucerne Theater: Philippe Minyana's house of the dead
• Lucerne Theater: La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
• Lucerne Theater: Jakob von Gunten ( Robert Walser )
• Lucerne Theater: The Flying Dutchman ( Richard Wagner )
• Lucerne Theater: Amerika (based on the fragment of a novel by Franz Kafka )
• South Thuringian State Theater Meiningen: Danton's death by Georg Büchner
• State Theater Hannover: Berlin Alexanderplatz after Alfred Döblin
• Staatstheater Hannover: Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship years after Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• Staatstheater Stuttgart: The victim (play based on the film by Tarkowski )
• Theater am Neumarkt Zurich: Fragments of a language of love instead of a dark world (based on Roland Barthes )
• Theater Freiburg: The possibility of an island (based on the novel by Michel Houellebecq )
• Theater Freiburg: The Trial (based on the fragment of a novel by Franz Kafka )
• Theater Freiburg: Peer Gynt (dramatic poem by Henrik Ibsen with music by Edward Grieg)
• Theater Freiburg: Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini
• Theater Freiburg: Fremdbaren1-3 after texts by Petra Kelly, Albert Camus and Aharon Appelfeld
• Theater Freiburg: The Tempest by William Shakespeare with the music by Jean Sibelius
• Theater Freiburg: The Buddenbrooks after Thomas Mann
• Theater Freiburg: Tosca by Giacomo Puccini
• Freiburg Theater: The Greens. A success story by Jarg Pataki / Viola Hasselberg
• Schauspielhaus Hamburg: An enemy of the people by Henrik Ibsen
• Schauspielhaus Hamburg: The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill
• Schwetzingen Opera Festival / Freiburg Theater: The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Web links

• Biography on the website of the Schauspielhaus Hamburg ( Memento from January 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Romantic love is lonely , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 31, 2008, accessed on October 25, 2011.