The Nuremberg State Theater has ended its collaboration with director Peter Konwitschny. As has now become known, the State Opera has already separated two weeks before the premiere of his production “The Troubadour” on November 13th by the renowned, 76-year-old director.
What exactly happened in Nuremberg and how the termination of the collaboration came about is what the State Theater Nuremberg said at the request of the SZ on Thursday: “In a rehearsal situation, Mr. Konwitschny expressed himself in a way that those involved perceived as inappropriate and discriminatory was “, said director Jens-Daniel Herzog. “After discussions with several people involved, the theater management came to the same conclusion and made it unmistakably clear that there is no room for discrimination at the State Theater in Nuremberg Moderated discussions in the best possible way. “
Peter Konwitschny himself had spoken in the BR about the incident, which was also the subject of the “Kulturzeit” program on Tuesday on 3sat. Konwitschny described how he gave stage directions to a person in the ensemble during a rehearsal and tried to illustrate his ideas with a metaphor. Konwitschny’s choice of words, however, apparently found the person concerned to be discriminatory.
In the end there was a termination agreement
Then, according to Konwitschny, nothing happened at first, and the next day he received an email accusing him of racist behavior. In an interview with Artistic Director Herzog, he said that he did not want to work on a theater where he was not openly attacked, but rather attacked “from the back”. When Konwitschny announced that he wanted to stop work on the production, the theater management also saw a separation as the only possible consequence, so the State Theater in Nuremberg on request: “The separation took place amicably on the basis of a termination agreement.” The theater did not want to comment on the director’s description of the rehearsal situation: “Since the presentation is clearly based on Mr. Konwitschny’s very personal perception of the incident, we can neither confirm nor deny it from the theater side.”
In an interview with the SZ, Konwitschny did not want to comment on Thursday. Everything has been said about the cause, the director said on the phone. The work on “The Troubadour” continued after his departure, the final rehearsals were now directed by the assistant director Marie-Christine Lüling. On November 13th, the premiere took place as planned – just without Konwitschny.