Walter Felsenstein

Walter Felsenstein (* May 30, 1901 in Vienna, † October 8, 1975 in Berlin) was an Austrian film director. He founded in 1947 the Komische Oper in Berlin and was its director until 1975.

Life and work

Felsenstein was the son of a senior official at the Imperial Austrian Northwestern Railway. In 1918 the family moved to Villach, the father rose to become Vice- Chief of the Austrian State Railways. The son should study at the Technical University Graz engineering, but the it moved to the theater. Felsenstein began his career at the Vienna Burgtheater, after he was 1923-1932 theater actor in Lübeck, Mannheim and Bytom, where he first directed. In Basel and Freiburg im Breisgau he first came into closer contact with the contemporary musical theater.

As a director of opera and drama he was at the Opera House in Cologne (1932-1934), at the Municipal Theater in Frankfurt am Main ( 1934-1936 ). Closed it in 1936, the Ministry of Arts because of his marriage to a "non- Aryan " from. He worked at the Stadttheater Zurich (1938-1940) further and returned in 1940 with the help of Henry George to Germany, where he worked at Berlin's Schiller Theater ( 1940-1944 ). He also directed as a guest director in Aachen, Dusseldorf, Metz and Strasbourg. In 1942, he staged at the Salzburg Festival Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's Le nozze di Figaro (conductor Clemens Krauss, sets and costumes Stefan Hlawa ). From 1945 to 1947 he worked at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin. In 1947 he founded the Komische Oper in East Berlin, whose director he was, until his death.

From 1956 on, he was vice-president of the German Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic and the Union of theater artists.

Felsenstein set new standards in the field of opera direction. He found to theatrically sophisticated productions, as they had been hitherto reserved for the spectacle and the former singer conventions avoided. Although it is sometimes world stars like Sylvia Geszty, Anny Schlemm and Rudolf were obliged shock at the Komische Oper, the focus of the work Walter Felsenstein lay on the ensemble. The castle next to the artistic staff, to, inter alia, Irmgard Arnold, Anny Schlemm, Ruth Pushed - Lipka, Hanns Nocker, Günter Neumann, Rudolf Asmus, Werner Enders, and Joseph Burgwinkel included, the stage technicians with a.

In 1966 he brought the successful ballet choreographer Tom Schilling and Jean Weidt to build a ballet company, which should complement the new revolutionary style of opera at the Komische Oper. This problem solved Tom Schilling in no time, and until 1993 on 75 ballet productions, which found recognition in over 30 countries. The " Realistic dance theater " of Tom Schilling would never have become reality without the great support of the director Walter Felsenstein.

By Walter Felsenstein, the term musical theater was coined for his special opera work. He was a translator and editor of numerous works of the opera world literature, including Carmen (Georges Bizet, 1949), La Traviata ( Giuseppe Verdi, 1955). Famous productions were among others also The Magic Flute (Mozart, 1954), Tales of Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach, 1958), Otello (Verdi, 1959). Unforgettable is the audience Bluebeard (Jacques Offenbach), played since 1963 and until 1992, The Cunning Little Vixen ( Janáček ), 1956, or A Midsummer Night's Dream (Benjamin Britten ). If Felsenstein in Berlin staged operas in foreign languages ​​, these were basically written in German translation. The most famous student of Walter Felsenstein was Götz Friedrich, as a third important director this time at the Komische Oper is Felsenstein's successor Joachim also mention heart. Also Felsenstein's sons Peter Brenner ( from his first marriage ) and John have been a successful opera directors, the youngest son Christopher was educated first at the Max Reinhardt Seminar as an actor. He then moved the tray completely: he was captain on Great ride and has since worked as a university lecturer at the University of seafaring in Wismar. In 2010 he revised the DEFA films that had arisen under the direction of Walter Felsenstein there. The restored films were shown in December 2010 and January 2011 to great public interest in the Babylon cinema. Many of the surviving participants were present.

As a theater director Felsenstein worked after the Second World War over again at the Vienna Burgtheater, where he brought, inter alia, Heinrich von Kleist Kathy of Heilbronn and most recently in 1975 Goethe's Torquato Tasso on the stage. At the Bavarian State Theatre in Munich in 1972, he directed Schiller's Wallenstein trilogy. He had his last domicile in Glienicke / Northern Railway north of Berlin. His grave is located in the monastery on the island of Hiddensee, where he owned a holiday home.

Awards

Felsenstein 1950 was awarded the Goethe Prize of the city of Berlin. In 1969 he was awarded the Karl Marx Order of the GDR, 1973, the honor Clasp to the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold. He was an honorary doctorate from the Humboldt University Berlin and honorary member of the Society for Music Theatre in Vienna. The Opera Consortium in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1971 he was awarded the plaque Orpheus triumphant. In the Berlin district of Marzahn -Hellersdorf a street is named after him.

Works

  • Walter Felsenstein, Götz Friedrich, Joachim Herz: Music Theatre - contributions on methodology and staging concepts. Reclam, Leipzig 1970.
  • Moods ... not, but intentions. Conversations with Walter Felsenstein. Material for theater vol 200 theater and society. Vol 43 Association of Theatre of the GDR, Berlin 1986.
  • Ilse Koban (ed.): Walter Felsenstein. Theater must always be something total. Letters, notes, speeches, interviews. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-362-00013-4.
  • Walter Felsenstein: theater. Calls, letters, documents. Hentrich, Berlin, 1991, ISBN 3-926175-95-8.
  • Walter Felsenstein: The duty to find the truth. Letters and writings of a man of the theater. Foreword by Ulla Berkéwicz. Edited by Ilse Koban. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt aM 1997, ISBN 3-518-11986-9.

Movies

  • A gust of wind (1941 ), his only feature film
  • Fidelio (1956 ), Don Fernando: Erwin Gross / Alfred Poell; Pizarro: Hannes Schiel / Heinz Rehfuss; Florestan: Richard Holm; Leonore: Claude Nollier / Magda László / Grete room; Rocco: Georg Wieter / Wolfgang Hebenstreit; Marcellina: Sonja Beautiful; Jaquino: Fritz Berger; Choir of the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dirig: Fritz Lehmann, . Features: Rochus Gliese
  • The Cunning Little Vixen (1965 ), Irmgard Arnold, Manfred Hopp, Josefsburg angle, Werner Enders, Frank Peoples, Christa Öhlmann, Karin cousin, Rudolf Asmus, Ruth Pushed - Lipka, Werner Enders, Herbert Rossler
  • Othello ( 1969) Othello - Hanns Nocker, Desdemona - Christa Noack, Jago - Vladimír Bauer.
  • Tales of Hoffmann (1970), DEFA, DFF. Directed by: George F. Mielke and Walter Felsenstein, with Hanns Nocker as Hoffmann and Melitta Muszely as Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta and Stella.
  • Bluebeard, DEFA. Hanns Nocker as Bluebeard.
  • Records by the DFF were also made by Don Giovanni ( inter alia with György Melis as Giovanni, Klara Barlow as Anna, Anny Schlemm as Elvira, Rudolf Asmus as Leporello, 1966) and The Marriage of Figaro ( inter alia with Magdalena Falewics as the Countess, Ursula Reinhardt -Kiss as Susanna, Ute Trekel -Burckhardt as Cherubino, Jozsef Dene as Figaro, 1975).
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