Henning Brockhuaas with Josef Svoboda

Photo by Antonio Tabocchini

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.of productions, namely: The GoodPerson of Sezuan by Bertolt Brecht(Hamburg and Piccolo Teatro,Milan); El nost Milan by CarloBertolazzi; Shakespeare’s The Tempest;August Strindberg’s Storm; SamuelBeckett’s Happy Days; La storia dellabambola abbandonata by GiorgioStrehler, taken from a fable byAlfonso Sastre; La grande magia byEduardo De Filippo; Arlecchinoservitore di due padroni by CarloGoldoni; Luigi Pirandello’s Come tumi vuoi, and Faust by JohannWolfgang von Goethe.His working relationship withStrehler continued at the Teatro allaScala in Milan with Lohengrin, twostagings of Die Entführung aus demSerail, Simon Boccanegra, Don Giovanniand Le Nozze di Figaro.From 1984 to 1989 he was thetheatre company’s dramatist anddirector at the Odeon - Théâtre del'Europe in Paris, staging L'Histoireinachevée by Volker Braun; Jeux defemme by Krzysztof Zanussi andEdward Zebrowski and Il signorPirandello è desiderato al telefono byAntonio Tabucchi.In 1989, he returns to the PiccoloTeatro with L'affare by EgidioBertazzoni, is appointed the theatrecompany’s dramatist for the FaustProject (while also directing anumber of other productions there)in addition to working for the Uniondes Théâtres de l’Europe.In 1990, Henning Brockhaus directsThe Lady from the Sea by HenrikIbsen, also staged at the TeatroArgentina in Rome.Here we reference his mostimportant productions as director insuccessive years: The Seven Deadly Sins

Born in Plettenberg, Germany, HenningBrockhaus graduated in languages in 1965.In that same year he began to study musicat the Nordwest-Deutsche Musikakademiein Detmold. He graduated in clarinet andcompleted courses in composition.Following a promising career as a clarinetisthe continued his studies at Freie Universitätin Berlin, where he studied psychology,philosophy and theatre studies, while alsoworking as a voluntary assistant to thedirector on a number of diverse productionsat the renowned Volksbühne Berlin DDRwith Benno Besson and Heiner Müller, andat the Berliner Ensemble with ManfredWeckwerth and La Staatsoper in Berlin withRuth Berghaus.But it was an encounter with GiorgioStrehler in 1975 that veered him towardsdirecting as a career. He then became assistent to and close collaboratorof the founder of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.While at the Piccolo Teatro, and withStrehler, he worked on the sets for a number

by Bertold Brecht and KurtWeill, with Ute Lemper as thelead, at the Schauspielhaus inDüsseldorf; Clavigo by JohannWolfgang von Goethe atSchauspielhaus in Zurich;Biedermann und die Brandstifterby Max Frisch and La BuonaMadre by Carlo Goldoni inAntwerp.With Pina Bausch’s theatrecompany, in Wuppertal hestages Un Ballo in Maschera byGiuseppe Verdi, Andorra byMax Frisch, Don Carlos byFriedrich Schiller, andGiuseppe Verdi’s Otello atSaarbrücken, RichardWagner’s Parsifal in Utrecht,and Il Matrimonio segreto byDomenico Cimarosa atStaatsoper in Berlin.At the Teatro Sperimentale diSpoleto he stages Tosca byGiacomo Puccini, at theNationale Reisopera –Holland, Wagner’s Tristan undIsolde and at the Verdi Festivalin Parma, Verdi’s Rigoletto.His productions met withgreat success at the Staatsoperin Hamburg for La vera storiaby Luciano Berio, at ReggioEmilia for Don Quixote byMiguel de Cervantes, thenstaged in Turin (a proseperformance, adaptation byHenning Brockhaus in fivedifferent evenings).But among his most criticallyacclaimed productions wehave the unforgettable LaTraviata, Rigoletto, and Attila byGiuseppe Verdi, Lucia diLammermoor by Gaetano

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Donizetti and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Macerata OperaFestival; Verdi’s Otello at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, alsoLa Traviata and Macbeth, and Elektra by Richard Strauss at theTeatro dell'Opera di Roma.His productions have attained wide consensus in Japan:La Traviata in Nagoya, and Faust, Lucia di Lammermoorand Macbeth in Tokyo, which was the recipient of theJapanese critics’ top award.In 1993, for La Traviata and in 2003, for El Cimarrón by H.W.Henze, at Macerata he receives the Premio Abbiati (Italianmusic critics’ award).For the Pergolesi-Spontini di Jesi festival in 2004 hestages La Serva Padrona by Gian Battista Pergolesi anda prose performance on various texts by J. J. Rousseau:Le devin du village.In 2005, Vanne, carta amorosa. Festival Pergolesi-Spontini.In 2006, Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini. Baths of Caracalla,Summer Festival, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. In 2007, Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm at Macerata, Terra deiTeatri.In 2008, La Traviata at Palm Beach, USA, Turandot at NewNational Theatre of Tokyo.In 2009, The Emperor Jones by Louis Gruenberg at Teatro delleMuse, Ancona; Il Prigionier superbo by G.B. Pergolesi at Jesi.In 2010, La Traviata at San Carlo in Naples, Palau de les Artsdi Valencia andNCPA in Beijing (conducted by Lorin Maazel);Beatrice di Tenda by Vincenzo Bellini at Teatro Bellini di Catania.In 2011, La Serva Padrona by G.B. Pergolesi and Le Devindu village by J. J. Rousseau for the Festival Pergolesi-Spontini at Jesi.In 2012, Le Notti Bianche by Dostojevsky, Grotte di Frasassi;La Traviata, Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Macerata Opera

Festival; Jaokob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm, Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Festival Lugo; Lucia di Lammermoor, Circuito Lirico Lombardo, Ravenna and Fondazione Pergolesi Jesi; Macbeth, Fondazione Pergolesi Jesi; Macbeth, Teatro Carlo Felice, Teatro Verdi di Trieste.In 2014. Otello at Teatro Massimo, Palermo and at San Carlo, Naples; Macbeth, Royal Opera House, Oman; La Traviata at Trieste and Udine, at Macerata Opera Festival, in Astana/Kazakistan, at Festival Verdi di Busseto.In 2015. Lohengrin at Teatro Municipal de São Paulo.

In addition to his long and illustrious career he teaches directing at university level, at I.U.A.V. in Venice and since 2004, at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata.

Josef Svobota (a sinistra) insieme a Henning Brockhaus durante la conferenzastampa per la La Traviata a Macerata Opera Festival.

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