Hans Neuenfels
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Hans Neuenfels (; 31 May 1941 – 6 February 2022) was a German writer, poet, film producer, librettist, theatre director, opera director and theatre manager. As a director, he first focused on drama, staged at prominent houses such as the Vienna
Burgtheater The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...
, and became a leading exponent of German
Regietheater Regietheater (German for ''director's theater'') is the modern practice of allowing a director freedom in devising the way a given opera or play is staged so that the creator's original, specific intentions or stage directions (where supplied) can b ...
. From 1974, he turned to opera, looking for "the subliminal of the music and the interlinear of the texts", for "surprisingly new, sometimes even disturbingly ambivalent perspectives on the works". Some of his opera productions caused controversies, such as Verdi's '' Aida'' at the Oper Frankfurt in 1980 where he staged the title character as a contemporary cleaning lady. In Mozart's '' Idomeneo'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2006, he was accused of offending Islam, and in Wagner's '' Lohengrin'' at the
Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
in 2010, he dressed the choir as laboratory rats. He received the
Der Faust ''Der Faust'', officially ''Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust'', is a German theatre prize, a national prize from 2006. It is awarded annually by the organizations Deutscher Bühnenverein, , Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste and the stat ...
award for his life's achievements in 2016, and is regarded as one of the most inventive directors of his generation.


Life and career

Born in
Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
, Neuenfels published prose and poetry already as a young man. He was influenced by meeting Max Ernst, for whom he served as secretary. He studied drama and directing at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen from 1961 to 1964, and at the
Max Reinhardt Seminar The Max Reinhardt Seminar (Reinhardt Seminar) is the School of Drama at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. It is located in the Palais Cumberland, Penzingerstraße 9, in Vienna's 14th district (). History A ''Lehr ...
in Vienna in the 1960s, where he met his future wife, actress
Elisabeth Trissenaar Elisabeth Trissenaar (born 13 April 1944) is an Austrian actress, who lives in Berlin. Life and career Trissenaar's father was the Dutchman Frans Trijssenaar. After studying at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna, she was cast in her first rol ...
. He worked in Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Basel, Cologne, and from 1972 at the
Schauspiel Frankfurt The Schauspiel Frankfurt is the municipal theatre company for plays in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is part of Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt. History In the late 1770s the theatre principal Abel Seyler was based in Frankfurt, and established th ...
, where he shaped the company's theatre in codetermination (''Mitbestimmungstheater'') together with intendant Peter Palitzsch. In the 1970s he established himself as a leading exponent of German
Regietheater Regietheater (German for ''director's theater'') is the modern practice of allowing a director freedom in devising the way a given opera or play is staged so that the creator's original, specific intentions or stage directions (where supplied) can b ...
. Being invited to prominent venues, such as the
Burgtheater The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...
, his productions were often controversially received. He worked with well-known actors including Klaus Maria Brandauer and , directing Kleists ''
Penthesilea Penthesilea ( el, Πενθεσίλεια, Penthesíleia) was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was ...
'' at the
Schillertheater The Schiller Theater is a theatre building in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the central Charlottenburg district at Bismarckstraße 110, near Ernst-Reuter-Platz. Opened in 1907, the building served as a second venue for the Konzerthaus Berl ...
in Berlin, with Trissenaar in the title role, and Shakespeare's '' Ein Sommernachtstraum'' with Bernhard Minetti also there. At the Burgtheater, he directed Kleist's ''
Das Käthchen von Heilbronn ' (''Katie of Heilbronn or The Trial by Fire'') (1807–1808) is a "great historical knightly play" (German: ') in five acts by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. The action of the drama takes place in Swabia during the Middle Ages. Perf ...
'', and at the
Schauspielhaus Zürich The Schauspielhaus Zürich ( en, Zürich playhouse) is one of the most prominent and important theatres in the German-speaking world. It is also known as "Pfauenbühne" (Peacock Stage). The large theatre has 750 seats. The also operates three st ...
Wedekind's '' Lulu''. From 1986 to 1990, Neuenfels was general manager at the Volksbühne Berlin.


Opera

In 1974, the first opera directed by Neuenfels was Verdi's '' Il trovatore'' at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. It showed already his specific view on works of the standard repertoire: "tracing the subliminal of the music and the interlinear of the texts and thus often opening surprisingly new, sometimes even disturbingly ambivalent perspectives" ("... die dem Unterschwelligen der Musik und dem Zwischenzeiligen der Texte nachspürte und so oft überraschend neue, ja zuweilen verstörend ambivalente Perspektiven auf die Werke eröffnete"). His opera productions were often accompanied by heated discussions and scandals. When Schreker's '' Die Gezeichneten'' was revived at the Oper Frankfurt, conducted by Michael Gielen, he staged it as "drug intoxication, with heroin syringe in the station toilet" ("Drogenrausch mit Heroinspritze auf der Bahnhofstoilette"). In Verdi's '' Aida'' there in 1980, he portrayed the Ethiopian slave as a cleaning woman in a contemporary setting, going for what he called an archaeology of the unconscious ("Archäologie des Unbewussten"). His 1998 production of Mozart's '' Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' at the Staatsoper Stuttgart was awarded the . Neuenfels directed at the
Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...
first in 2000, Mozart's ''
Così fan tutte (''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...
''. The
soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261  Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
Karita Mattila, portraying Fiordiligi, criticised him for sexually explicit interpretation and too little focus on the singers: in a prologue, huge insects and background videos, some of them erotic, distracted attention from the singers, and during Fiordiligi's aria "", Mattila arrived onstage walking two men, in leather and chains, as if they were dogs. She called that the worst experience and said she believed Neuenfels had crossed the line. When he returned to the festival for '' Die Fledermaus'' by Johann Strauss the following year, he provoked again angry reactions and resentment. In December 2003, his production of Mozart's '' Idomeneo'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin included a scene in which the title character staggers on stage carrying the severed heads of Neptune, Jesus and Buddha. When the production was planned to be repeated in September 2006, then adding the head of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, the police warned that it might present a security risk, and the opera house cancelled the performances. Following protests that the opera house was engaging in self-censorship, its manager,
Kirsten Harms Kirsten Harms (born 25 June 1956) is a German theatre director and manager. Life Harms was born in Hamburg. After she passed her Abitur in 1976, she studied flute and musicology at the University of Hamburg, then music theatre direction at th ...
, rescheduled those performances for December that year. Neuenfels directed at the
Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
first in 2010 with Wagner's '' Lohengrin'', conducted by Andris Nelsons. This production set the opera in a laboratory and featured chorus members costumed as lab rats. The audience reaction at the premiere ranged from enthusiastic applause to irate booing. According to ''
Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', Neuenfels merely smiled and shrugged after taking his curtain calls. The same year, he directed Simon Mayr's ''
Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...
'', a neglected opera. On 31 January 2016, he directed the world premiere of
Miroslav Srnka Miroslav Srnka (born 23 March 1975 in Prague) is a Czech composer. Early life Srnka studied musicology at Charles University Prague from 1993 to 1999 and composition with Milan Slavický at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague from 1998 to 20 ...
's ' commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, conducted by
Kirill Petrenko Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (russian: Кирилл Гарриевич Петренко, Latin script: ; born 11 February 1972) is a Russian-Austrian conductor. He is chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early life Petrenko was born in Omsk ...
.


Personal life and death

While studying in Vienna, Neuenfels and Elisabeth Trissenaar met, and married. Their son, , is a
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
. They lived in Berlin and owned a summer residence in Altaussee, Austria. Neuenfels wrote a novel, ''Isaakaros'', published in 1991. A collection of his essays, ''Wie viel Musik braucht der Mensch?'' was published in 2009, and an autobiography, ''Das Bastardbuch'', in 2011. Neuenfels died from
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in Berlin on 6 February 2022, at the age of 80.


Awards

Source: * 1994 of Vienna * 2003 * 2005 Opera Director of the Year,
Opernwelt ''Opernwelt'' (''Opera World'') is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet. It includes news about current performances, portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses, performance spaces, and contemporary and ...
magazine * 2008 Opera Director of the Year * 2012 (Lower Rhine literature prize) of Krefeld, for ''Das Bastardbuch'' * 2015 Opera Director of the Year * 2016 German theatre prize
Der Faust ''Der Faust'', officially ''Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust'', is a German theatre prize, a national prize from 2006. It is awarded annually by the organizations Deutscher Bühnenverein, , Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste and the stat ...
, Lifetime Achievement Prize Since 2006, Neuenfels was member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, performing arts section.


Writings

Source: * Poems (1960) * ''Mundmündig'' (1963) * ''Isaakaros'' (1991) , * ''Neapel oder die Reise nach Stuttgart'' (2001) , *


Filmography

Source: * 1983: ''
Penthesilea Penthesilea ( el, Πενθεσίλεια, Penthesíleia) was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was ...
'' * 1983: ''Die Familie oder Schroffenstein'' , * 1984: ''Die Schwärmer'' , * 1988: ''Europa und der zweite Apfel'' (TV) , * 1990: ''Das Blinde Ohr der Oper'' * 1999: '' Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' (TV) * 2001: '' Die Fledermaus'' (TV)


References


Further reading

* * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neuenfels, Hans 1941 births 2022 deaths 20th-century German male writers 20th-century German novelists 21st-century German male writers 21st-century German novelists German opera directors Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin People from Krefeld German male novelists Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany