Rudolf Berger (theater director)

Rudolf Berger (born August 11, 1960 in Basel , Switzerland ) is an Austrian-Swiss theater director and cultural manager.

Life

Berger grew up in Innsbruck (Austria) since he was five years old and has Austrian and Swiss citizenship.

After graduating from high school, he began studying musicology and singing solo at the same time . He later graduated from the latter with the stage maturity test . In 1979 Rudolf Berger became assistant director at the Tiroler Landestheater , where, in addition to directing, he gained experience in various areas of this house. From 1983 to 1985 he was assistant director and editor of the programs at the Vienna Chamber Opera . In 1984 he directed a production of Mozart's La finta giardiniera for the first time in the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn . Later he worked as a director at the Tiroler Landestheater and the Teatre Liceu in Barcelona . Parallel to the chamber opera, he worked for Waldemar Kmentt at the Vienna Conservatory.

In 1985 he was hired as chief dispatcher at the Opéra de Nice ( Nice ) in France. He made his first international experience here and in 1986 also took over the position of production manager (Directeur de scène) of the International Opera and Music Festival of Aix-en-Provence . He fulfilled both positions until 1989. That year Michel Glotz brought him to his Paris agency to work for the international opera sector. In 1990 he returned to the Vienna State Opera with the new management of Waechter and Holender as chief dispatcher . In 1994 he took over the management of the Vienna Chamber Opera and thus also the Mozart Festival in Schönbrunn and the Belvedere Singing Competition.

From autumn 1997 he became general director of the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg . This house became the National Theater (Opéra national du Rhin) under his direction. Countless co-productions, television and video recordings (including Don Giovanni, Dialogues des Carmélites and Die tote Stadt), invitations to festivals (Savonlinna, Proms' in London, Paris) and critical prizes accompanied the development of this house. Another focus was the work with young singers, expressed in 1998 by the establishment of the opera studio Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin, whose graduates find international engagement. Rudolf Berger was Vice President of Opera Europa from 2001 to 2003 ; he was also a board member of Opera America .

From the 2003/2004 season on, Rudolf Berger was director of the Vienna Volksoper . He left this position at the end of the 2006/2007 season, one year before the end of his contract. The occasion was a falling out with the then responsible State Secretary Franz Morak about the insufficient budget of the house.

From 2007 to 2017 he was artistic director of the Kufstein operetta summer and its annual production.

Until October 2015 Rudolf Berger was the owner and managing director of the company "Rudolf Berger - Kulturconsulting" in Gars am Kamp (Lower Austria), which is active in the field of culture in the fields of consulting and production.

From 2014 to 2018 he was also managing director of Burg Gars GmbH, responsible for the implementation of the annual summer festival Oper Burg Gars (artistic director Johannes Wildner ) and for all other activities at the Babenbergerburg in Gars / Thunau.

In the elections to the Austrian National Council on September 28, 2008, Rudolf Berger was a candidate for the Liberal Forum , but this party failed to make it into parliament. From October 25, 2008, he was a member of the Presidium of the Liberal Forum, responsible for international relations and spokesman for culture and communication, but a few months later resigned all party functions. He was on the personal committee of the SPÖ politician and district leader in Alsergrund Martina Malyar .

literature

• Nina Debrunner: Rudolf Berger . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 166 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Personnel committee for Martina Malyar. ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.