Barrie Kosky
Encyclopedia
Barrie KoskyBarrie Kosky's name is sometimes misspelled as Barry Kosky, Barrie Koski, Barrie Koskie. (born 1967 in Melbourne
) is an Australian theatre and opera
director.Kosky also plays the piano, as he did in his production of Monteverdi's Poppea
where he performed in Brecht's play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
in 1981 and later directed his first play. Among many other later famous Australian artists, he also worked at the St Martins Youth Arts Centre. In 1985, he then began studies in Piano and Music History at the University of Melbourne
.
's The Knot Garden
(reduced version) at the Melbourne Spoleto Festival
. In 1990 he formed the Gilgul
TheatreAt the Gilgul, Kosky worked with the set designer Peter Corrigan
on many productions; this collaboration continued later, e.g. on Oedipus Rex, Nabucco, Lear. which staged The Exile Trilogy in 1993 (The Dybbuk, Es brennt, Levad) at the Belvoir St Theatre
; Kosky was artistic director of the Gilgul Theatre until 1997. Other notable productions with the Gilgul Theatre were The Wilderness Room and a stage adaptation of The Operated Jew
.
For the Victorian State Opera he directed in 1991 The Marriage of Figaro
and The Barber of Seville
. In 1993 he directed the season premiere of Larry Sitsky
's opera The Golem for Opera Australia
which was also released on ABC Classics
. Also in 1993 he directed Goethe
's Faust I and II
for the Melbourne Theatre Company
, and Stravinsky
's Oedipus Rex
for Opera Queensland
.
In 1996 he directed Nabucco
(recorded on DVD by ABC Television
.) and The Flying Dutchman
for Opera Australia, a work which he revisited in 2006 at the Aalto-Musiktheater
in Essen
, Germany. Also in 1996, Kosky was appointed director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
, at 29 years the youngest person ever appointed to that position. Following that appointment, the 50-minute documentary Kosky In Paradise examined his ideas and creative motivations.
In 1997 he directed Molière
's Tartuffe
in Christopher Hampton
's translation at the Sydney Theatre Company
(STC). In 1998 he directed Mourning Becomes Electra
for the STC, and King Lear
for the Bell Shakespeare company's touring production. In 1999 Kosky directed Alban Berg
's Wozzeck
for the Sydney Opera House
. In 2000, Kosky directed Ted Hughes
' adaption of Seneca
's Oedipus
a the Sydney Theatre Company.
From 2001 to 2005 Kosky was co-director of the Schauspielhaus Wien in Vienna. There he directed Euripides
' Medea
with the Australian actress Melita Jurisic Jurisic also played in Kosky's Poppea and many others of his productions.); the production was nominated for the Nestroy
-Theaterpreis (Nestroy Theatre Prize). He also directed there Poppea
, in which he combined Monteverdi
's music with songs by Cole Porter
,The Tales of Hoffmann, Macbeth
in an all-female version,Kosky had staged a Macbeth during his university years in Melbourne with Libbi Gorr
in the title role. and Boulevard Delirium with Paul Capsis
which toured around the world for several seasons, including Australia where it won a 2006 Helpmann Award
. His staging of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Innsbrucker Festwochen für Alte Musik under the musical direction of René Jacobs was also shown at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden
; that production was broadcast on German TV by RBB
/arte
. Also in 2005, Kosky directed Wagner
's Lohengrin
for the Vienna State Opera
.
In 2006 he directed with Tom WrightKosky and Tom Wright have worked together on several projects; their collaboration started when both where at Melbourne University. the eight-hour play The Lost Echo –based on Ovid
's Metamorphoses and Euripides' The Bacchae
– for the Actors Company at the STC; the play won five Helpmann Awards. In the same year, Kosky directed in Germany The Flying Dutchman
at the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen and Britten
's Midsummer Night's Dream
at the Theater Bremen
.
In 2007 Kosky presented his Vienna production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea
at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. In that year, he also directed Peter Grimes
for the Staatsoper Hannover
, and Tristan und Isolde
for the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen which received a nomination for the Faust Award.
In January 2008, he directed at the same house Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
. In April 2008 Kosky was participant in the "Towards a Creative Australia
" stream at the Australia 2020 Summit
. In July 2008 he directed the premiere of Liza Lim
's opera The Navigator
at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
as part of the Brisbane Festival
2008, a work which Lim had developed during her stay in Berlin; Kosky had also directed her earlier opera The Oresteia (1993). The Navigator was also presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival
. In September 2008 Kosky directed Euripides' The Women of Troy with Melita Jurisic and Robyn Nevin
in an adaptation by himself and Tom Wright at the Sydney Theatre Company. In August 2008 Melbourne University Publishing
published an essay by Kosky, On Ecstasy (ISBN 978-0-522-85534-0).In this collection of four essays (more are planned), Kosky was the only one not primarily a writer; the others were David Malouf
, Germaine Greer
and Blanche d'Alpuget
. In October 2008, Kosky presented his stage adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe
short story "The Tell-Tale Heart
" at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 2009 Kosky directed Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead at the Staatsoper Hannover, a production that won the Faust Award. In the same year he started his Ring Ccycle
in Hannover that was finished in June 2011. In 2010 he directed Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau
at the Opera festival of the Bavarian State Opera
in Munich. Later in the same year he presented a double bill production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle
at the Oper Frankfurt.
Following several productions in the past at the Komische Oper Berlin
, including Le Grand Macabre
(2003), The Marriage of Figaro (2005), Gluck
's Iphigénie en Tauride
and Kiss Me, Kate
(2007) (broadcast on German TV 3sat
in 2008), Rigoletto
(2009) and Rusalka
(2011), Kosky has been appointed Chief Director at the Komische Oper commencing in the 2012/2013 season.
Upcoming productions are Castor and Pollux
at the English National Opera
, London, and The Merchant of Venice
at the Schauspiel Frankfurt.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
) is an Australian theatre and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
director.Kosky also plays the piano, as he did in his production of Monteverdi's Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
Biography
Barrie Kosky is the grandson of Jewish emigrants from Europe. Kosky attended Melbourne Grammar SchoolMelbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
where he performed in Brecht's play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a play by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, originally written in 1941...
in 1981 and later directed his first play. Among many other later famous Australian artists, he also worked at the St Martins Youth Arts Centre. In 1985, he then began studies in Piano and Music History at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
.
Career
In 1989 Kosky directed the Australian premiere of Michael TippettMichael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
's The Knot Garden
The Knot Garden
The Knot Garden is the third opera by composer Michael Tippett for which he wrote the original English libretto. The work had its first performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 2 December 1970 conducted by Sir Colin Davis and produced by Sir Peter Hall...
(reduced version) at the Melbourne Spoleto Festival
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Festival is a celebration of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held for 17 days each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia.-History:...
. In 1990 he formed the Gilgul
Gilgul
Gilgul/Gilgul neshamot/Gilgulei Ha Neshamot describes a Kabbalistic concept of reincarnation. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to "cycle" through "lives" or "incarnations", being attached to different human bodies over time...
TheatreAt the Gilgul, Kosky worked with the set designer Peter Corrigan
Peter Corrigan
Peter Russell Corrigan was born in 1941, Australia. As an Australian architect and has been involved in the completion of works in stage and set design.-Early Life and Life Achievements:...
on many productions; this collaboration continued later, e.g. on Oedipus Rex, Nabucco, Lear. which staged The Exile Trilogy in 1993 (The Dybbuk, Es brennt, Levad) at the Belvoir St Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre is an Australian theatre venue in Sydney. The venue in Belvoir Street, Surry Hills previously operated as the Nimrod Theatre, and was founded as "Belvoir St" in 1984 by Sue Hill and Chris Westwood...
; Kosky was artistic director of the Gilgul Theatre until 1997. Other notable productions with the Gilgul Theatre were The Wilderness Room and a stage adaptation of The Operated Jew
The Operated Jew
The Operated Jew is a satirical antisemitic book published by the German physician Oskar Panizza in 1893. Written from a medical perspective, it highlighted the more scientific form of racism that became characteristic of the modern era.-Plot summary:...
.
For the Victorian State Opera he directed in 1991 The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
and The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
. In 1993 he directed the season premiere of Larry Sitsky
Larry Sitsky
Lazar Sitsky AM, usually referred to as Larry Sitsky, born 10 September 1934, is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator and scholar...
's opera The Golem for Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
which was also released on ABC Classics
ABC Classics
ABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
. Also in 1993 he directed Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's Faust I and II
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
for the Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
, and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Oedipus Rex
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...
for Opera Queensland
Opera Queensland
Opera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981, then under the name Lyric Opera of Queensland, after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in December 1980.It is after Opera Australia the second...
.
In 1996 he directed Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
(recorded on DVD by ABC Television
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
.) and The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
for Opera Australia, a work which he revisited in 2006 at the Aalto-Musiktheater
Aalto Theatre
The Aalto Theatre is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Essen, Germany. It was opened on 25 September 1988 with Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg...
in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
, Germany. Also in 1996, Kosky was appointed director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
, at 29 years the youngest person ever appointed to that position. Following that appointment, the 50-minute documentary Kosky In Paradise examined his ideas and creative motivations.
In 1997 he directed Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's Tartuffe
Tartuffe
Tartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
in Christopher Hampton
Christopher Hampton
Christopher James Hampton CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of...
's translation at the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
(STC). In 1998 he directed Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...
for the STC, and King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
for the Bell Shakespeare company's touring production. In 1999 Kosky directed Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
for the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. In 2000, Kosky directed Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
' adaption of Seneca
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
's Oedipus
Oedipus (Seneca)
Oedipus is a tragic play that was written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca at some time during the 1st century AD. It is a retelling of the story of Oedipus, which is better known through the play Oedipus the King by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles...
a the Sydney Theatre Company.
From 2001 to 2005 Kosky was co-director of the Schauspielhaus Wien in Vienna. There he directed Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
' Medea
Medea (play)
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...
with the Australian actress Melita Jurisic Jurisic also played in Kosky's Poppea and many others of his productions.); the production was nominated for the Nestroy
Johann Nestroy
Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath...
-Theaterpreis (Nestroy Theatre Prize). He also directed there Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
, in which he combined Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's music with songs by Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
,The Tales of Hoffmann, Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
in an all-female version,Kosky had staged a Macbeth during his university years in Melbourne with Libbi Gorr
Libbi Gorr
Lisbeth Joanne "Libbi" Gorr is an Australian broadcaster, writer, voice artist and journalist. She is also known for the satirical character that she created called "Elle McFeast"....
in the title role. and Boulevard Delirium with Paul Capsis
Paul Capsis
Paul Capsis is an Australian singer and actor, who is best known for his cabaret theatre roles. Capsis has Greek and Maltese heritage.Capsis has released two CDs called Paul Capsis Live and Everybody Wants To Touch Me...
which toured around the world for several seasons, including Australia where it won a 2006 Helpmann Award
Helpmann Award
The Helpmann Awards recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. The recognized disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006...
. His staging of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Innsbrucker Festwochen für Alte Musik under the musical direction of René Jacobs was also shown at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
; that production was broadcast on German TV by RBB
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg is an institution under public law for the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, situated in Berlin and Potsdam...
/arte
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
. Also in 2005, Kosky directed Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
for the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
.
In 2006 he directed with Tom WrightKosky and Tom Wright have worked together on several projects; their collaboration started when both where at Melbourne University. the eight-hour play The Lost Echo –based on Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses and Euripides' The Bacchae
The Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
– for the Actors Company at the STC; the play won five Helpmann Awards. In the same year, Kosky directed in Germany The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
at the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen and Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
at the Theater Bremen
Theater Bremen
Theater Bremen is the collective name for four auditoria in the city of Bremen - these are the Oper Bremen, the Schauspiel Bremen, the Tanztheater Bremen and the MoKS Bremen....
.
In 2007 Kosky presented his Vienna production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. In that year, he also directed Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
for the Staatsoper Hannover
Staatsoper Hannover
Staatsoper Hannover is an opera house and opera company in Hanover. It is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.During the course of its season from September to June, Staatsoper Hannover mounts productions of a variety of operas from the standard operatic repertoire as well as 20th century...
, and Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
for the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen which received a nomination for the Faust Award.
In January 2008, he directed at the same house Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.-Composition history:...
. In April 2008 Kosky was participant in the "Towards a Creative Australia
Australia 2020 Summit participants
-Australia 2020 Summit Delegates :The general list of the Australia 2020 Summit participants, and their working groups, announced on 28 March 2008, is:-A long-term national health strategy:*Professor Diane Geraldine Alcorn*Ms Pat Anderson...
" stream at the Australia 2020 Summit
Australia 2020 Summit
The Australia 2020 Summit was a convention, referred to in Australian media as a summit, which was held on 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future"...
. In July 2008 he directed the premiere of Liza Lim
Liza Lim
Liza Lim is an Australian composer.Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects...
's opera The Navigator
The Navigator (opera)
The Navigator is an opera by Liza Lim to a libretto by Patricia Sykes. The work had its world premiere at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts as part of the Brisbane Festival 2008 on 30 July 2008...
at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Queensland provides a 300-seat performance space, art gallery, artist studios, screening room and workshops with theatre rehearsal spaces for music, dance and circus. Opened in 2001 it is named after Judith Wright, who...
as part of the Brisbane Festival
Brisbane Festival
Brisbane Festival is an annual arts festival held in Brisbane, Australia.-History:Brisbane Festival was developed by the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council in 1996 as an initiative to foster the arts....
2008, a work which Lim had developed during her stay in Berlin; Kosky had also directed her earlier opera The Oresteia (1993). The Navigator was also presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Festival is a celebration of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held for 17 days each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia.-History:...
. In September 2008 Kosky directed Euripides' The Women of Troy with Melita Jurisic and Robyn Nevin
Robyn Nevin
Robyn Anne Nevin AM , is an Australian stage and screen actress, and is considered by some as a doyenne of Australian theatre.- Early life :...
in an adaptation by himself and Tom Wright at the Sydney Theatre Company. In August 2008 Melbourne University Publishing
Melbourne University Publishing
Melbourne University Publishing is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne .MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell books and stationery to students, and then began publishing books itself...
published an essay by Kosky, On Ecstasy (ISBN 978-0-522-85534-0).In this collection of four essays (more are planned), Kosky was the only one not primarily a writer; the others were David Malouf
David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, he won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, and he was...
, Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
and Blanche d'Alpuget
Blanche d'Alpuget
Josephine Blanche d'Alpuget is an Australian writer, and second wife of the longest-serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister, Bob Hawke.-Biography:...
. In October 2008, Kosky presented his stage adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
short story "The Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the...
" at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 2009 Kosky directed Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead at the Staatsoper Hannover, a production that won the Faust Award. In the same year he started his Ring Ccycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
in Hannover that was finished in June 2011. In 2010 he directed Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau
Die schweigsame Frau
Die schweigsame Frau is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with libretto by Stefan Zweig after Ben Jonson's Epicoene, or the Silent Woman.-Performance history:...
at the Opera festival of the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
in Munich. Later in the same year he presented a double bill production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
at the Oper Frankfurt.
Following several productions in the past at the Komische Oper Berlin
Komische Oper Berlin
The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....
, including Le Grand Macabre
Le Grand Macabre
Le Grand Macabre is György Ligeti's only opera. The opera has two acts and its libretto – loosely based on the 1934 play, La Balade du grand macabre, by Michel De Ghelderode – was written by Ligeti in collaboration with Michael Meschke...
(2003), The Marriage of Figaro (2005), Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
and Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...
(2007) (broadcast on German TV 3sat
3sat
3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland .3sat was established for cultural...
in 2008), Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
(2009) and Rusalka
Rusalka (opera)
Rusalka is an opera by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. Rusalka is one of the most successful Czech operas, and represents a cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech opera houses...
(2011), Kosky has been appointed Chief Director at the Komische Oper commencing in the 2012/2013 season.
Upcoming productions are Castor and Pollux
Castor et Pollux
Castor et Pollux is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard, whose reputation as a salon poet it made. This was the third opera by Rameau and his second in the form of the...
at the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, London, and The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
at the Schauspiel Frankfurt.
Literature
- Bauer, Jürgen (2008): No Escape. Aspekte des Jüdischen im Theater von Barrie Kosky. Edition Steinbauer, Wien. ISBN 978-3-902494-34-4 (in German)
- Kosky, Barrie (2008): On Ecstasy. Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne. ISBN 978-0-522-85534-0
External links
- official Biography
- List of productions (Komische Oper Berlin)
- Biography, works, assessment
- Lengthy and wide ranging interview by Graeme BlundellGraeme BlundellGraeme Blundell is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer and biographer.Blundell was born in Melbourne; he grew up in Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne...