Johannes Felsenstein

Johannes Felsenstein (born August 19, 1944 in Berlin ; † October 30, 2017 in Glienicke / Nordbahn ) was a German artistic director , opera and theater director .

life and career

Johannes Felsenstein was a son of the founder and long-time director of the Komische Oper Berlin , Walter Felsenstein . As a result, he had had contact with music theater from an early age . After graduating from high school in Berlin (West) , he studied directing for three years at the “ Hanns Eisler ” Music Academy in Berlin (East) .

Johannes Felsenstein also learned directing from his father and from 1973 was an assistant at the Berlin Komische Oper, primarily with his father, but also with Joachim Herz , Götz Friedrich , David Pountney and Harry Kupfer . In 1974 he made his directorial debut at the Komische Oper in the musical Das Himmelbett (I do! I do!) . He also appeared as an actor, for example in his father's production, The Fiddler on the Roof . In 1985 he left the Komische Oper and worked as a guest director in Leipzig, Weimar, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Aachen and Saarbrücken. He also emerged as a translator of operas and musicals from English. At the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, for example, he brought out Alexis Sorbas by Fred Ebb and John Kander as well as his own version by Candide . Through his personal contacts with Leonard Bernstein , Elia Kazan , Jerome Robbins , John Kander, Fred Ebb and John Morris , Johannes Felsenstein was strongly influenced and inspired for the musical genre and for American music.

Johannes Felsenstein assisted his father at ITI conferences (a subdivision of UNESCO ) abroad, conducted seminars with him at colleges and universities in the USA and was assistant in Walter Felsenstein's Wallenstein production for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Due to the political conditions in what was then the GDR , he became involved in the Federal Republic in 1988.

After Felsenstein had worked from 1988 to 1991 as head stage director and chief director for music theater in Bremerhaven , he was appointed general director of the State Theater Dessau (today: Anhaltisches Theater Dessau) in December 1991 , from 1996 to the end of his contract in 2009 with the title of general director.

In Dessau he also worked as chief director and staged Die Kluge, Orpheus in der Unterwelt (1992/93), Anna Bolena, Die Zwei Foscari, Die Räuber, La Traviata (1993/94), Fidelio, Cosi fan tutte (1994/95 ), Othello (1995), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1995/96), Salome, Luise Miller (1996/97), La Bohème, The Flying Dutchman (1997/98), Tosca, Il Campiello (1998/99), Jenuf, Der Kuhhandel, Johanna d'Arc (1999/2000), Der Freischütz (2000/01), Tsar and Zimmermann, Katja Kabanowa (2001/02), Carmen, Marriage of Figaro (2002/03), Rusalka, Don Karlos (2003/04), Johanna d'Arc, Die Räuber, Louise Miller (2004/05), in connection with the “Verdi-Schiller cycle”, Don Giovanni, Tristan and Isolde (2005/06), Die Zauberflöte, Mignon ( 2006/07), Hansel and Gretel, Macbeth and Parsifal (2007/08) and Fidelio and Elektra (2008/09).

Johannes Felsenstein lived in Glienicke / Nordbahn near Berlin. He was married and had two daughters.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Director Johannes Felsenstein is dead . Deutschlandfunk-Kultur broadcast “Fazit”, November 3, 2017, accessed on November 5, 2017.