Daniela Kerck
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Daniela Kerck is a German scenic designer and stage director who has worked internationally. She directed and created the stage for Jörg Widmann's opera ''
Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
'' that opened the 2022
Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden The Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden (International May Festival, IMF) is a theater festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. Established in the late 19th century after the Bayreuth Festival, the festival is one of the most distinguished internationa ...
in 2022, and again for Puccini's ''
Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...
'' for the 2024 festival. Her staging of the world premiere of
Søren Nils Eichberg Søren Nils Eichberg (born 23 July 1973) is a German/Danish classical composer and conductor. Biography Eichberg was born in Stuttgart. He studied piano, composition and orchestra conducting in Copenhagen, Cologne and Berlin. He had his first br ...
's '' Oryx and Crake'' was nominated for the 2023
International Opera Awards The International Opera Awards is an annual awards ceremony honouring excellence in opera around the world. Origins The International Opera Awards was founded in 2013 by Harry Hyman, a UK businessman, philanthropist and supporter of opera, and ...
.


Life and career

Kerck studied stage design at the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...
with Erich Wonder. Her thesis was titled "Every Room is the Centre of the World". She worked as Wonder's assistant at the
Zürich Opera House The Zurich Opera House () is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to Ballett Zürich. I ...
, the
Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...
and the
Bavarian State Opera The Bavarian State Opera () is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bavarian State Orchestra. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under El ...
, among others. She made scenic designs for the Schauspielhaus Wien, the
Latvian National Opera The Latvian National Opera and Ballet (LNOB) is an opera house and opera company at Aspazijas boulevard 3 in Riga. Its repertoire includes performances of opera and ballet presented during the season which lasts from mid-September to the end of ...
, the
Théâtre du Châtelet The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...
in Paris and the Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid. She recreated the scenic design by Wonder for ''
Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...
'' by Richard Strauss, directed by
Luc Bondy Luc Bondy (17 July 1948 – 28 November 2015) was a Swiss theatre and film director. Life and career upright=1.3, '' Charlotte Salomon'' at the Salzburg Festival 2014 Trained in Paris with the theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, he received a jo ...
, for a production at the
Volksoper The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...
in Vienna in 2023 that had first been presented at the
Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
, later also at
La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
in Milan. Kerck studied music theatre direction at the
Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe The Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe () is a college of music in Karlsruhe, Germany. Originally the Baden Conservatory of Music, it was elevated to a Hochschule under the direction of Franz Philipp, who led the school from 1924 to 1942. Studies ...
with Andrea Raabe and , and attended
master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...
es with
Peter Konwitschny Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director. Biography Peter Konwitschny grew up in Leipzig, where his father Franz Konwitschny was principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchest ...
and Tatjana Gürbaca. She worked as assistant director to
Johannes Schaaf Johannes Schaaf (7 April 1933 – 1 November 2019) was a German film, theatre and opera director and actor. Several of his films have been internationally recognized. His focus shifted to opera in the 1980s and he worked with many of the leading i ...
at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera and the
Aalto Theatre The Aalto Theatre () is a performing arts venue in Essen, Germany, and is home to the city's opera company Aalto-Musiktheater and the ballet company Aalto Ballett. The serve as the venue's orchestra. The theatre opened on 25 September 1988 with R ...
in Essen. She directed Verdi's ''
Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 De ...
'' at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl in 2019. She directed and created the scene for several performances at the
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden), also known as the Staatstheater Wiesbaden or Theater Wiesbaden, is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the German state of Hesse. The company produces operas, plays, b ...
, both plays and operas. She has worked regularly with costume designer Andrea Schmidt-Futterer and video artist Astrid Steiner. She staged in Wiesbaden Joshua Harmon's ''Admissions'' in 2021, the German premiere of the play, and '' The Minutes'' by Tracy Letts. She created Jörg Widmann's opera ''
Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
'' for the opening performance of 2022
Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden The Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden (International May Festival, IMF) is a theater festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. Established in the late 19th century after the Bayreuth Festival, the festival is one of the most distinguished internationa ...
, acknowledged by the press and the composer. She created Dvořák's ''
Rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as th ...
'' in collaboration with soprano
Olesya Golovneva Olesya Golovneva is a Russian operatic soprano who made a career mostly in Europe, first at Austrian and German opera houses, in roles such as Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Tatjana in Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'', Verdi's Luisa Miller and Puccini ...
. Kerck staged the world premiere of
Søren Nils Eichberg Søren Nils Eichberg (born 23 July 1973) is a German/Danish classical composer and conductor. Biography Eichberg was born in Stuttgart. He studied piano, composition and orchestra conducting in Copenhagen, Cologne and Berlin. He had his first br ...
's opera '' Oryx and Crake'', based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, on 18 February 2023; it was nominated for the 2023
International Opera Awards The International Opera Awards is an annual awards ceremony honouring excellence in opera around the world. Origins The International Opera Awards was founded in 2013 by Harry Hyman, a UK businessman, philanthropist and supporter of opera, and ...
. She directed and also created the scene for Puccini's ''
Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...
'' for the 2024 Internationale Maifestspiele, conducted by
Yoel Gamzou Yoel Gamzou (; 10 March 1988) is an Israeli-American conductor and composer, known for works by Gustav Mahler, especially his completion of Mahler's Symphony No. 10. He has been music director at the Theater Bremen from 2017, and has conducted at ...
. When Puccini died in 1924, he had not yet set the happy ending of the libretto to music; Kerck decided to use none of the completions of Puccini's opera by others. She framed the exotic story around Turandot by scenes in Puccini's library, where he composes in the beginning at a grand piano, served by a housekeeper. Dressed in a white suit throughout the performance, he is identified with the Prince in the story, and the housekeeper with Líu who is active on stage for most of the time. In the end, when Liú has taken her life and the music by Puccini ends, the Puccini on stage receives a kiss of death from Turandot and dies on the piano bench, to Puccini's "
Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...
" antiphon composed in 1905.


References


External links

*
Daniela Kerck / Stage director Set designer
Operabase * *
Staatstheater Wiesbaden The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden), also known as the Staatstheater Wiesbaden or Theater Wiesbaden, is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the German state of Hesse. The company produces operas, plays, b ...
2024
Oryx and Crake - Søren Nils Eichberg
theater-tv.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerck, Daniela German theatre directors German opera directors German scenic designers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni