Karl Wesseler

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Karl Wesseler (born April 11, 1929 in Düsseldorf , † April 26, 2010 in Cologne ) was a German theater, television and opera director , composer , author , actor , cabaret artist and university lecturer .

Life

Karl Wesseler was born in Düsseldorf in 1929 as the son of a notary , grew up in Dormagen as the eldest of six children and attended the Hansagymnasium (Cologne) . He had to interrupt his school days when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht at the age of 15 in 1945, the last year of the war , and sent to the front. After graduating from high school, he attended the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, completed an acting course with a subsequent stage entrance examination and studied theater and music sciences , German , philosophy and business administration at the University of Cologne . He completed his studies in 1954 with his dissertation on the representation of the Singspiel on the German stage of the 18th century with magna cum laude .

From then on, Karl “Charly” Wesseler worked from the mid-1950s as an actor and director, as a pianist and presenter, as a composer and author for theater, film and television, in cabaret and in the concert hall. He has staged plays , operas , operettas and musicals on many German-speaking stages - including the Staatstheater Darmstadt , Staatstheater Nürnberg , Staatstheater Wiesbaden , Hamburgische Staatsoper and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf / Duisburg - and , as a long-time director of most of Willy Millowitsch - Broadcasts the folk actor also to an appearance in the Molière play Der Bürger als Edelmann , was artistic director at the Rheinisches Landestheater Neuss and the Theater am Niederrhein Kleve from 1978 to 1983 and merged these in 1981 and from 1983 to 1989 general director at the Münster city theaters . In 1984 he was awarded the annual "Mückenstich" carnival medal, which is given to a prominent Münster native. Good Luck Bill or Gut Holz Wilhelm , which he wrote and composed by Gerhard Jussenhoven , advanced to become one of the most successful musicals in Münster , and in the early 1970s, long before the premiere, led to sharp protests from the Hohenzollern family .

Grave cemetery Melaten

Wesseler was awarded the title of professor for his many years of pedagogical work at the State University of Music in the Rhineland, including as director of the opera school. His special commitment belongs to children's theater, he achieved early success with his own children's plays and also developed his own forms of play-along theater, including Die Heinzelmännchen von Köln , Der Pattenfänger von Hameln , Columbus discovers America and Columbus in the New World . He staged his big children's theater revue Columbus enchants the moon in 1993 at the Friedrichstadtpalast in Berlin with an ensemble of around 200 children. He lived with his wife, the dramaturge Dorothea Renckhoff, most recently in Cologne and has two grown children. At his last public appearance in October 2009, Wesseler framed the memorial matinee for Peter Zadek in the Schauspielhaus Hamburg musically alongside clarinetist Giora Feidman and singer Udo Lindenberg as pianist.

Karl Wesseler died at the age of 81 and was buried on May 4, 2010 in Cologne's Melaten cemetery (hall 35).

The FAZ paid tribute to Wesseler and his extensive artistic activity in its obituary by describing him as an “all-rounder” who “apparently effortlessly” jumped the barriers between seriousness and maintenance.

Productions for television (selection)

Productions for the theater (selection)

Working as a composer (selection)

Works (selection)

  • Columbus enchants the moon (children's revue)
  • Good luck, Bill! or good wood, Wilhelm! (Musical, composed with Gerhard Jussenhoven )
  • Pill to Power (Musical)
  • Columbus discovers America (play-along play for children)
  • Columbus in the New World (play-along play for children)
  • Dr. Dolittle in Africa (musical theater for children)
  • The Heinzelmännchen of Cologne (play-along play for children)
  • The Pied Piper of Hamelin (play-along play for children)
  • Clown in Africa or How to Catch Monkey Robbers with Laughing Apples ( musical theater for children)

Roles as actors (selection)

Teaching activities

Memberships

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nobody wants Wilhelm . In: Die Zeit , No. 23/1970
  2. ↑ stgereon.de ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stgereon.de
  3. ↑ nachrichten.rp-online.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / nachrichten.rp-online.de  
  4. ↑ musenblaetter.de
  5. ↑ Zadek's player . In: FAZ , May 8, 2010, p. 36
  6. ↑ ngz-online.de
personal data
SURNAME Wesseler, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater, television and opera director, composer, author, actor, cabaret artist and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 2010
Place of death Cologne