Ioan Holender

Ioan Holender ( born July 18, 1935 in Timişoara, Romania) is an Austrian singer, artist manager and opera director of Romanian origin.

Biography

Ioan Holender into a Jewish family of entrepreneurs. His father had in Timişoara (also Temeswar or Temeschburg ) a jam and vinegar factory, which was expropriated in 1948. Ioan grew three languages ​​: Romanian, German, Hungarian. To be admitted to a degree, he worked for a year at the tram, then studied mechanical engineering (specializing in steam engines ) at the Polytechnic Institute Timişoara. As a participant in the student uprising in Timişoara in 1956, he was expelled and had therefore no access to other universities in the country.

Then Ioan Holender has worked as a tennis coach and assistant director. Since his mother was already living in Vienna, he was allowed to enter the country in 1959 as part of family reunification there. Instead of the originally planned engineering studies, but he began to study singing. After graduation he worked as an opera baritone concert singer and first at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and later in St. Pölten.

1966 Holender joined the company as an employee in the theatrical agency Stárka, which he took over after a few years and was ultimately known as Opera agency Holender.

In 1988 he was appointed by the designated director Eberhard Waechter as Secretary-General of the Vienna State Opera from 1991. This resulted in the media to some fierce criticism because Holender was alleged to have negotiated with the incumbent Staatsoper Directorate of Claus Helmut Drese contractual obligations and at the same time already zuzuarbeiten his successor. Those singers, it was said, the commitment he had himself conveyed to the State Opera, he would now criticize as a member of the future opera guide at the same time. ( Waechter planned time limit and replace it with a reinforced ensemble structure and longer-term guest contracts the system of evening agreements gas animal artist. ) Was also geargwöhnt, Holender would negotiate with commitment for the seasons Waechter speak singer contracts with his own agency. Finally, Holender withdrew from his opera agency that was later sold within their own families.

After the unexpected death Waechter in March 1992 Holender was appointed director of the State Opera House on April 1 of that year. For four years he led simultaneously the Volksoper Vienna.

At the State Opera Holender effected within a short time, significant revisions to Waechter's conservative conception; For example, he had the title performed operas in their original language - that 's Le nozze di Figaro The Marriage of Figaro instead - plakatieren and soaked the ensemble principle by increasing short-term contracts on the evening. In addition, it undertook exponent of modern opera productions such as Herbert Wernicke, Hans New Rock, Willy Decker and David Pountney.

The plan Waechter's return to older productions under the direction of the respective directors newly rehearsed at the State Opera, Holender lay almost completely aside. The character played by him repertoire is mainly based on the new productions of his directorate time, supplemented by famous key works or some older productions whose less effort facilitated the organization of the board. In addition, continued Holender - as before him Claus Helmut Drese and Herbert von Karajan - more on co-productions - such as with the Salzburg Festival, La Scala and the Paris Opera. Some productions of the Vienna State Opera were sold to other opera houses or borrowed, for example at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Holender contract was extended three times and ended on 31 August 2010. He is thus the longest acting director since 1869, ie since the foundation of the house. In Berlin Holender supervised by the early exit of the director Udo Zimmermann transitional program of the Deutsche Oper. Holender is a lecturer at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna. He is also a board member of the European Music Theatre Academy.

In November 2011, Ioan Holender was elected chairman of the association Timişoara Capitala Culturala Europeana ( Timisoara European Capital of Culture ).

Private Holender is married to his second wife and it has a son and a daughter. His first marriage comes from the lawyer Adrian Hollaender. Holender is the cousin of the Austrian director Robert Dorn helmet.

Awards and honors (excerpt)

• Honorary Doctorate the University of Bucharest
• The University of the West Timişoara
• The National Academy of Music " Prof. Pancho Wladigerow " and
• Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj- Napoca ( Cluj )

• Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
• Golden Medal of Honour for Services to the City of Vienna
• Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class
• Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters (1999)
• Star of Romania on Ribbon (2001)
• Jacob Prandtauer Prize for Science and Art of the city of St. Pölten ( 2001)
• Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria (2002)
• Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2004)
• Honorary Ring of the Vienna State Opera (2004)
• Honorary Medal of the Austrian capital Vienna in Gold ( 2010)
• Clemens Krauss Medal of the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
• Franz Schalk Medal in Gold of the Vienna Philharmonic
• European Cultural Initiative Award of the European Cultural Foundation Pro Europa (2005)
• Order of the Rising Sun by the collar, golden rays (2011)
• Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2011)
• Honorary citizenship of Timişoara

Works

• From Timisoara to Vienna. The life of the Vienna State Opera Director. Autobiography, edited by Marie -Theres Arnbom. Böhlau, Vienna 2001, ISBN 978-3-205-99384-1.