Gisela May
Gisela May ( born May 31, 1924 in Wetzlar ) is a German actress and chanteuse who made his name primarily as Brechtinterpretin.
Life and career
Gisela May was born in Wetzlar, the daughter of the writer Ferdinand May and the actress Kate May.
She attended a girls' high school and a school budget. From 1942 to 1944 she graduated from the Leipzig drama school.
Theater
First engagements they had in Danzig, Dresden, Görlitz, Leipzig, Halle and Schwerin. Since 1951, she worked in Berlin, first at the Deutsches Theater, since 1962 at the Berliner Ensemble, where she was employed for over thirty years. From 1978, she played until her retirement in 1992 Brecht's Mother Courage, who gave it its own interpretation - in front of her had " Helene " at the Berliner Ensemble embodies the role and thus set new standards. In addition to Brecht's The Days of the Commune, and Brecht / Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins of the petty bourgeois, she played among others, the title roles in Lessing's Minna von Barn-helm, Stewart / Herman Hello, Dolly!, Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, the mother Wolfen in Hauptmann's beaver fur.
Song
1957 saw Hanns Eisler in a program, the special talent of May for the chanson and the possibilities of their voice, their strength, versatility, perception, intelligence, virtuosity, elegance and simplicity, what Gisela May perfected in the following years.
In your own programs, it submits songs, political songs and poems. She has performed in many European countries, the USA and Australia: From Four Seasons ( Bertolt Brecht ), Kurt Tucholsky hates - loves Oops we live ( Hollaender, Mehring, Wedekind ), Jacques Brel evening, Erich Kästner, Hanns Eisler evening. My artistic partner for many years was the composer and pianist Manfred Schmitz.
Private
She was 1956-1965 married to the journalist and documentary filmmaker Georg Honigmann, the father of writer Barbara Honigmann. After the divorce, she lived with Wolfgang Harich.
Functions
From 1963 she was a member of the Presidium of the German - Italian Society of the GDR under the President Professor Dr. jur. Gerhard Reintanz of the Martin -Luther- University Halle- Wittenberg, from 1972 member of the Academy of Arts (East ) and from 1993 the new Academy of the Arts ( Berlin).
After 1990
A wide audience in West Germany, she was known for her participation in the TV series Adelheid and her murderer. As Chansoninterpretin they had already made in GDR times by publications of a number of albums on an international scale.
Last Gisela May was seen on January 24, 2013 as part of the Kurt Weill week on the stage of the Komische Oper Berlin and listen. On 12 January 2014, almost 90 -year-old Gisela May took to the cheers of those present at the Volksbühne Berlin part in the beginning of the year of the European Left.
Prizes and awards
Filmography (selection)
Discography (selection)
Quote
But what the May and their exceptional versatility, its richness in nuances and shades are concerned, you would be trying ... to speak of an ensemble, even if it is in this case (our luck!) Only from a woman - a woman which has of course more to offer than seven others. ( Lothar Kusche )
Autobiography
- With my eyes. Encounters and impressions. 1st edition 1976, 3rd edition. Verlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1982.
- It change the times. Memories. Militzke, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 978-3-86189-269-4.