Paul Esterházy (theater director)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Esterházy (full name: Paul Constantin Maria Josef Esterházy ; born April 26, 1955 in Vienna ) is an Austrian dramaturge , director and former theater director .

Live and act

The son of the agricultural engineer Paul Esterházy (1915–1980) and the longstanding employee of the Catholic women's movement in Austria (kfbö) Christa Esterházy geb. Steinbach (* 1928) studied the subject in Vienna law , which he in 1979 with the promotion finished, and theater arts . While still a student, he was concert dramaturge and lecturer for musical theater directing at the American Institute of Musical Studies , a summer academy in Graz from 1975 to 1982 , most recently as Assistant Artistic Director. His brother is the designer Mathis Esterházy .

Esterházy's entry into the theater career began with his position as opera dramaturge on the stages of the city of Bielefeld in 1980 . The next stages in his career were from 1984 to 1989 as head opera and concert dramaturge at the Städtische Bühnen Freiburg im Breisgau , then from 1989 to 1991 as opera chief dramaturge at the Nationaltheater Mannheim , from 1993 to 1996 as chief dramaturge at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and from 1997 to 2000 at the Bonn Opera . Esterházy was also the initiator and head of the internationally renowned series “ bonn chance! Experimental music theater ”. Finally, in 2000, the city of Aachen appointed him to succeed Elmar Ottenthal to the post of general manager at the Aachen theater . At the same time he led the opera class of the Aachen department of the Cologne University of Music and Dance as part of a teaching position for music theater directing . In 2002 the artistic director Paul Esterházy from the Society for Contemporary Music Aachen e. V. awarded the Aachen Music Prize for his special commitment to the maintenance of contemporary music in Aachen.

After irreconcilable differences with local politics in Aachen in 2005, a contract extension did not come about, he is now regularly working as a freelance opera director with selected works at various stages, including at the Staatstheater Kassel ( Aribert Reimann : Lear ), Theater Hagen ( Erich Wolfgang Korngold : Die tote Stadt ), Stadttheater Gießen ( Jules Massenet : Werther ) and at the Theater Biel Solothurn ( Gioacchino Rossini : Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia ). His production "Neither nor" ( Verdi : Requiem / Feldman : Neither ) at the Staatstheater Kassel was nominated in 2008 for the German Theater Prize DER FAUST in the category "Best Direction for Music Theater". In the winter semester of 2009, he took on a visiting professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and, as professor for scenic interpretation, leads one of the opera classes. In addition, he gained a recognized reputation as a translator of opera texts.

World premiere projects

The following premieres have so far been under Paul Esterházy's responsibility as dramaturge and artistic director:

  • Violeta Dinescu , Hunger and Thirst , chamber opera based on Eugène Ionesco , Freiburg Theater, 1986
  • Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Smirnow , Tiriel , opera based on William Blake , Theater Freiburg, 1989
  • Detlev Müller-Siemens , The People , Opera based on Walter Hasenclever , Nationaltheater Mannheim, 1990
  • Reinhard Febel , Morel's invention , opera, libretto by Lukas Hemleb after Buoy Casares, 1994
  • Michael Gordon, Weather , Video Opera, 1997
  • Bernd Franke , Mottke the Thief , opera, libretto by Jonathan Moore based on Schalom Asch , 1998
  • Helmut Oehring , SIEBEN (from: Der Spalt ), Musiktheater, 1999
  • Beat Furrer et al. Klaus Lang , voice alone , listening theater based on Georg Büchner , 1999
  • Paulo C. Chagas, RAW , techno-opera, 1999
  • Charlotte Seither , Other / Self , Opera, 2000
  • Klaus Lang, Queen Ök , Music Theater, Theater Aachen, 2000
  • Klaus Lang (after Étienne-Nicolas Méhul ), The Two Blind People of Toledo , Komische Oper, Theater Aachen, 2000
  • Klaus Lang, immanuel's glove , Hörtheater, Theater Aachen (Aachener Dom), 2001
  • Helmuth Oehring, BlauWaldDorf , A Music-Dramatic Place Search for Hans Christian Andersen , Theater Aachen, 2002
  • Klaus Lang, The Persians , music theater based on Aeschylus, Theater Aachen, 2003
  • Helmut Oehring, WOZZECK returns , recorded MOMENT RECORDING, Theater Aachen, 2004
  • Gottfried Stein, Else , chamber opera based on Brothers Grimm , Theater Aachen, 2005
  • Michael Gordon, Acquanetta , opera, libretto by Deborah Artman, Theater Aachen, 2005
  • Klaus Lang, the influence of man on the moon . Text by Klaus Händl , Staatstheater Braunschweig, 2011

Productions (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Contemporary music in Aachen
  2. ↑ Awarding of the music prize to the Aachen artistic director
  3. ↑ Eckhard Hoog: Theater Aachen: Artistic director and theater director throw in the towel , in Aachener Zeitung of March 10, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Esterházy, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Esterházy de Galántha, Count Paul Constantin Maria Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian theater scholar, dramaturge and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna