Christof Nel (born 7 April 1944) is a German theatre and opera director. He began his career as an actor but moved on to direct opera productions at major opera houses.
Life
Born in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
to parents who were both musicians, Nel studied
art history and
theatre in Munich.
He began his theater career as an actor, engaged at the by
Peter Stein. He began directing in the 1970s.
His first plays were produced at the
Theater Köln, including the first performance in Germany in 1973 of ''Occupations'' (''Roter Sonntag in Turin'') by
Trevor Griffiths.
He was successful in productions for the
Schauspiel Frankfurt with
Peter Palitzsch.
Nel collaborated in interdisciplinary and experimental work with
Heiner Goebbels
Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, conductor and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 2012–14. His composition ''Stifters Dinge' ...
and
William Forsythe at the Frankfurt.
Several of the plays he directed were invited to the
Berliner Theatertreffen, such as the world premiere of
Thomas Brasch's ''Rotter'' in a Frankfurt production in 1978 and his production of ''
Antigone'' by Sophocles/Hölderlin in 1979.
Nel also directed at the
Staatstheater Stuttgart
The Staatstheater Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Theatre) is a theatre with three locations, Oper Stuttgart (Opera Stuttgart), Stuttgarter Ballett (Stuttgart Ballet), and Schauspiel Stuttgart (Stuttgart Drama Theatre), in Stuttgart, Germany. The s ...
and
Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Further stations were
Theater Bochum
The Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the notable drama theatres in Germany. It is located on Königsallee in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. Eric de Vroedt
Eric de Vroedt (Rotterdam, 1972) is a Dutch theater director, writer and actor.
Caree ...
,
Theater Basel and the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: Staatsoper Hamburg) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''General ...
.
Since the 1980s Nel has also staged music theatre, among others at the
Oper Frankfurt, where he directed Weber's ''
Der Freischütz'', Verdi's ''
Falstaff'', Smetana's ''
Die verkaufte Braut'', and Wagner's ''
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...
'', ''
Tristan und Isolde'' and ''
Parsifal''. There he also directed ''
Salome
Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...
'' and ''
Die Frau ohne Schatten'' by Richard Strauss and the first production in German of Aulis Sallinen's ''
Kullervo'' in 2011.
He directed at the
Staatsoper Stuttgart and the
Staatsoper Hannover. At the
Mannheim National Theatre, he directed Offenbach's ''
Hoffmanns Erzählungen
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
''.
Nel staged Weber's ''
Der Freischütz'' at the
Komische Oper Berlin.
References
External links
*
Christof Nel(articles) ''
Neue Musikzeitung''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nel, Christof
German theatre directors
German opera directors
1944 births
Living people
People from Stuttgart