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 operaBabylon that opened the 2022Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden in 2022, and again for Puccini'sTurandot for the 2024 festival. Her staging of the world premiere ofSøren Nils Eichberg'sOryx and Crake was nominated for the 2023International Opera Awards.
Kerck studied stage design at theAcademy of Fine Arts Vienna withErich Wonder.[1][2] Her thesis was titled "Every Room is the Centre of the World". She worked as Wonder's assistant at theZürich Opera House, theBerlin State Opera and theBavarian State Opera, among others.[2] She made scenic designs for theSchauspielhaus Wien, theLatvian National Opera, theThéâtre du Châtelet in Paris and the Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid.[1] She recreated the scenic design by Wonder forSalome by Richard Strauss, directed byLuc Bondy, for a production at theVolksoper in Vienna in 2023 that had first been presented at theSalzburg Festival, later also atLa Scala in Milan.[3]
Kerck studied music theatre direction at theHochschule für Musik Karlsruhe[1][4] with Andrea Raabe andStephan Mösch [de], and attendedmaster classes withPeter Konwitschny andTatjana Gürbaca.[2] She worked as assistant director toJohannes Schaaf at theSan Francisco War Memorial Opera and theAalto Theatre in Essen.[2] She directed Verdi'sAida at the Tiroler Festspiele inErl in 2019.[1]
She directed and created the scene for several performances at theHessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, both plays and operas. She has worked regularly with costume designer Andrea Schmidt-Futterer[2][5] and video artist Astrid Steiner.[2] She staged in WiesbadenJoshua Harmon'sAdmissions in 2021, the German premiere of the play,[1][6] andThe Minutes by Tracy Letts.[7] She created Jörg Widmann's operaBabylon for the opening performance of 2022Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden, acknowledged by the press[2][8] and the composer.[2] She created Dvořák'sRusalka in collaboration with sopranoOlesya Golovneva.[9]
Kerck staged the world premiere ofSøren Nils Eichberg's operaOryx and Crake, based onthe novel by Margaret Atwood, on 18 February 2023;[2] it was nominated for the 2023International Opera Awards.[10][11][4] She directed and also created the scene for Puccini'sTurandot for the 2024 Internationale Maifestspiele, conducted byYoel Gamzou.[12] 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.[13] 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" antiphon composed in 1905.[12][14][15]
In diesen Parallelwelten agieren die Protagonisten in Doppelrollen, Turandot/die Ehefrau Puccinis,[...] Wenn Liù tot auf der Bühne [...] erhebt sich Liù zu neuem Leben.