Leni Bauer-Ecsy

Leni Bauer-Ecsy (* 1905 in Hamburg ; † 1995 ) was a German stage and costume designer who mainly set up opera productions .

Life

With the exception of the place of birth, the year of birth and the year of death, no further biographical details are known about Leni Bauer-Ecsy. From various reviews, books and opera archives, four main places of activity can be determined so far:

1957–1967 Württemberg State Opera Stuttgart
1958–1966 Opera Scotland
1960–1965 Salzburg Festival
1960–1969 San Francisco Opera

In the 1950s and 1960s she designed - as one of the first female set designers in theater history - the stage and costume equipment for numerous productions at the Württemberg State Opera . She was committed to Stuttgart by Walter Erich Schäfer , the longstanding general manager of the Württemberg State Theater. The first two documented productions already show the breadth of their spectrum: 1957 Otto Nicolai's comic opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor , staged by Kurt Puhlmann and conducted by Ferdinand Leitner , in 1960 the Carl Orff premiere of Ludus de nato Infante mirificus , staged by Paul Hager and conducted by Heinz Mende . In April 1963, a Stuttgart guest performance of Federico García Lorca's blood wedding in the opera version by Wolfgang Fortner was recorded at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris . Günther Rennert , for whom Bauer-Ecsy created numerous sets, staged it, and Leitner conducted it. The top-class ensemble included singers Martha Mödl , Hetty Plümacher , Anny Schlemm and Gerhard Unger , as well as the actor Johannes Grossmann . In 1967, Rennert's production of Brecht / Weill's rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny, with Anja Silja as Jenny and with Ferdinand Leitner at the podium, was praised as an example .

At Opera Scotland , Bauer-Ecsy was responsible for decorating Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1958 , and in 1966 for Wozzeck and The Magic Flute . In February 1960 she took over the stage and costume design for the operetta Pariser Leben , staged by Heinz Hilpert at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus . In the summer of 1960 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival with the highly successful Così fan tutte production by Günther Rennert, conducted by Karl Böhm , which could then be seen every year until 1965 in the Kleiner Festspielhaus . In 1961, Hofmannsthals and Wagner-Régeny's Das Bergwerk zu Falun premiered in Salzburg , staged by Paul Hager and conducted by Heinz Wallberg . Most recently, Bauer-Ecsy furnished the small Mozart opera La finta giardiniera in the Residenzhof in Salzburg in 1965 , directed by Ernst Poettgen , and the conductor was Bernhard Conz .

In 1960 Bauer-Ecsy was engaged by director Paul Hager for his production of Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera , which resulted in a long-term collaboration. 1961 was followed by Le nozze di Figaro and - directed by Dino Yannopoulos - Lucia di Lammermoor , 1963 Capriccio by Richard Strauss and La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi , 1964 Der Rosenkavalier , 1965 Lulu by Alban Berg and 1966. The Makropulos Case by Leos Janacek . In the following year, the set designer was responsible for two productions, for Tristan and Isolde and for the US premiere of Gunther Schuller's jazz opera The Visitation , an accusation against racism based on Kafka's novel The Trial . Bauer-Ecsys' activities on the west coast ended in 1969 with a new production of Jenůfa , which was resumed in 1980 and 1986. A number of these San Francisco productions were shown in Los Angeles in the 1960s .

Movie

IMDb lists a television film on which Leni Bauer-Ecsy worked in 1955: Apoll von Bellac based on a play by Jean Giraudoux , with Rudolf Bechmann , Johanna von Koczian , Kurt Horwitz and Eva Vaitl in the leading roles. It was staged by Erich Fritz Brücklmeier .

Web links

Leni Bauer-Ecsy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
San Francisco Opera Performance Archive , chronological list of Leni Bauer-Ecsy's equipment at the San Francisco Opera

Individual evidence

↑ The works of Bauer-Ecsys at the Scottish Opera , at the Salzburg Festival and at the San Francisco Opera are fully recorded here. The Salzburg production of La finta giardiniera from 1965 was resumed in 1966, some productions in San Francisco were played until 1993. In Stuttgart, the artist most likely worked earlier than 1957 and possibly even after 1967. It is very likely that Leni Bauer-Ecsy worked on other stages.

personal data
SURNAME	Bauer-Ecsy, Leni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German stage and costume designer
DATE OF BIRTH	1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	1995

[1] The works of Bauer-Ecsys at the Scottish Opera , at the Salzburg Festival and at the San Francisco Opera are fully recorded here. The Salzburg production of La finta giardiniera from 1965 was resumed in 1966, some productions in San Francisco were played until 1993. In Stuttgart, the artist most likely worked earlier than 1957 and possibly even after 1967. It is very likely that Leni Bauer-Ecsy worked on other stages.