Michael von zur Mühlen

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Michael von zur Mühlen (born 1979 in Cologne ) is a German opera and theater director .

Life

Michael von zur Mühlen grew up in Cologne and began studying musicology and philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He then completed a degree in music theater directing at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin .

He worked as an assistant for the directors Achim Freyer , Joachim Schlömer , Jean Jourdheuil and Peter Konwitschny . He was a scholarship holder at the Forum Neues Musiktheater of the Stuttgart State Opera and staged the world premiere of Lucia Ronchetti's Last Desire based on Oscar Wilde's Salome.

Since 2004 he has been working as a freelance director in opera, drama and contemporary music theater, among others. a. at the Stuttgart State Opera, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, the Leipzig Opera , the Theater Heidelberg, the State Opera Berlin , the German National Theater Weimar , the German Theater Göttingen, the State Theater Darmstadt, the Theater Augsburg and the Theater of the City of Konstanz .

An important role is played by Bertolt Brecht , whose works Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouse , Life of Galilei , Lehrstück and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny he staged.

Since the beginning of the 2016/17 season he has been chief dramaturge and member of the artistic management at the Halle Opera , responsible for its innovative program and a. In 2019 he was awarded the Federal Theater Prize.

In 2008, his staging of Richard Wagner's Flying Dutchman at the Leipzig Opera developed into a scandal that was discussed intensively in the specialist press. After about an hour, numerous visitors left the hall. On stage were video sequences with dogs biting each other dead, cow carcasses hanging on hooks and lots of blood. Leading actor James Johnson resigned three days after the performance.

According to Christine Lemke-Matwey in Die Zeit , his production of Aida at the Halle Opera shows “what opera can do in the 21st century”.

In 2019 von zur Mühlen held the Bertolt Brecht visiting professorship in the city of Leipzig.

Productions (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trenches of Joy: Hallesche Bühnen are planning a festival . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . ( mz-web.de [accessed on November 21, 2016]).
  2. ↑ Eleven awards with the theater prize of the Federal Minister of State for Culture Grütters announces this year's winners: More attention and appreciation for theater in the regions. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Joachim Lange / Detlef Brandenburg: Heavy seas. (PDF) Die Deutsch Bühne, 2009, accessed on November 21, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Critical appraisal of the "Leipzig Opera Scandal" in the Online Musik Magazin (OMM): Desperation before the shot
  5. ↑ Christine Lemke-Matwey: A wonderful fraud. In: The time . January 24, 2018, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  6. ^ Bertolt Brecht visiting professorship - CCT Leipzig. Retrieved July 8, 2020 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Zur Mühlen, Michael von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne