Klaus Zehelein

Klaus Zehelein ( born September 5, 1940 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German playwright, professor, Academy President and former opera director.

Training and commitment

After graduation Zehelein studied German, musicology and philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. From 1959 to 1966 he also regularly attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music.

From 1967 to 1970 Zehelein was hired as a dramaturge at the Theater Kiel and moved from there to the Oldenburg State Theatre for a job to run as chief dramaturge. From 1977 to 1987 he worked as chief dramaturge for the Municipal Theatre Frankfurt, where he was soon coordinated opera director. This was followed by two years working as a freelance theater and opera dramaturge in Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels and Vienna, before 1989 he became artistic director of the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. From 1991 to 2006 Zehelein was opera director at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Since autumn 2006 he has been the president of the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Ever thing in the Prince Regent Theatre in Munich.

Teaching activities

Zehelein was a lecturer in music sociology at the University of Oldenburg. He also taught as a visiting professor at the State University of Minnesota, at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris, at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at the University of Giessen and from 1986 to 1992 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since autumn 2006 he directs the course dramaturgy of the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich and the Bavarian Theatre Academy.

Offices

Since May 2003 Zehelein has served as President of the German Theatre Association. In 2006 he became a member of the Art Board employed for three years by the Baden -Württemberg Minister President.

Awards

Zehelein in 1983 was awarded the German Critics Prize for his dramatic work at the Frankfurt Opera and was honored in 2001 with the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden -Württemberg for his outstanding service to the state of Baden -Württemberg. The Federal Cross of Merit, First Class has been awarded to him in the summer of 2006. In 2007 he was appointed as a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

In a survey of critics journal Opernwelt the Stuttgart State Opera was selected from Zehelein line in the years 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2006, the Opera House of the Year.