Otto Schenk
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Otto Schenk (born June 12, 1930 in Vienna, Austria) is an actor, theater director, and production designer. He is most famous in the United States for his lavish, realist, traditionalist productions at the Metropolitan Opera. He has also produced operas at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, as well as smaller opera houses such as the Berlin State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera. He regularly collaborates with Rolf Langenfass, a set and costume designer.
In Austria, Schenk is well known as a comic actor. He has appeared in over 30 films (mostly in German) and many plays.
Selected works as opera producer, director
- Die Zauberflöte (1957), Salzburg National Theatre. Debut as an opera director
- Lulu (1962), Vienna State Opera
- Carmen (1966), Vienna State Opera (Lorin Maazel conducting)
- Don Giovanni (June 15, 1967), Vienna State Opera (Josef Krips conducting, with Cesare Siepi as Don Giovanni)
- Der Rosenkavalier (1968), Vienna State Opera (Leonard Bernstein conducting)
- Fidelio (1970), Vienna State Opera (Leonard Bernstein conducting)
- Die Fledermaus (1972)
- Le nozze di Figaro (1974), La Scala (Claudio Abbado conducting, with Mirella Freni as the countess, José van Dam as Figaro, and Teresa Berganza as Cherubino)
- Tannhauser (1978), Metropolitan Opera
- Andrea Chenier (1981), Vienna State Opera (Nello Santi conducting, with Plácido Domingo in the title role)
- Baal (1981, premier), Salzburger Festival (later Vienna State Opera)
- Der Freischütz (1983), Bregenzer Festival
- Der Ring des Nibelungen (1986), Metropolitan Opera (James Levine conducting). Still in use at the Met
- Manon Lescaut (1986), Vienna State Opera (Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting, with Mirella Freni as Manon)
- Die Zauberflöte (1988), Vienna State Opera (Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting, with Jerry Hadley as Tamino)
- Don Pasquale (March 31, 2006), Metropolitan Opera (Maurizio Benini conducting (standing in for an injured James Levine), with Anna Netrebko as Norina and Juan Diego Flórez as Ernesto
The Met currently uses his productions of Parsifal, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Der Ring des Nibelungen, among others. Many of his Met productions are available on DVD.
Schenk, at 76, said that Don Pasquale was the last production he would do for the Met (it was also the final new Met production of Joseph Volpe's 16-year tenure as general manager).
