Lukas Hemleb
«Lukas Hemleb seems never to be where you expect him to be» said a newspaper article about him some years ago. From the very beginning of his theater work he is attracted by music and poetry. Research on various cultural backgrounds is what characterizes his work over two decades.
Today he is a worldwide solicited performing arts producer, directing mainly opera, but also theater and experimental crossover productions. During the last years his work was performed in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy – and Taiwan.
Born in Germany he began to train in theater right after school and made his debut as a director by 1985, in Germany, Belgium and France. In his early years as a director, he travelled to Cameroon and Nigeria to realize experimental theater projects with African artists. In 1992 he moved to France where he soon started to be known for his work off the beaten track. His version of Shakespeare’s « Titus Andronicus » in 2003 was seen in three different theaters in Paris and all over France. His productions for the French National Theater Comédie-Française in Paris (Feydeau’s comedy « Le Dindon » and Molière’s « Le Misanthrope ») have been broadcasted in French and German television (Arte, France 3, Télé 7) and toured all over France and also been shown at the Festival de Otoño in Madrid. The experimental play « Figure » about the painter Francis Bacon was produced in Lausanne and toured in France and Canada. In 2009 he worked with the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre and the Chekhov International Theatre Festival.
In Opera his repertory ranges from contemporary compositions to great popular operas by Verdi and Mozart. He also focused on Baroque repertoire such as Alessandro Scarlatti’s « Telemaco », Haendel’s « Ariodante », and Agostino Steffani’s « Niobe, regina di Tebe ». Present at major opera theaters in Europe, his productions could be seen in London (Covent Garden), Lisbon (Teatro São Carlo), Vienna (Theater an der Wien), Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Madrid (Teatro Real), Geneva (Grand Théâtre), and at the Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence. In 2014, began his collaboration with the german sculptor Alexander Polzin, for « Lohengrin » at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in 2015 for Gluck’s « Iphigénie en Tauride » at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2016 he engaged successful collaborations with the italian video artist Luca Scarzella for « Tosca » and with the italian set and lighting designer Gianni Carluccio for Meyerbeer’s « Les Huguenots », both in Kiel, Germany. In June he was invited again to Geneva, to direct Verdi’s « Falstaff ».
In parallel he explored for many years the Chinese and Taiwanese culture collaborating with artists practicing traditional art and music. « The Luo River Goddess » was created in Taipei and was performed at the Forbidden City in Beijing after a tour in Paris and all over France. The Nanguan chamber opera « Feather » was created in Taipei and invited to the New Vision Arts Festival in Hongkong. In 2017 he continued his collaboration with Asian artists, directing the Taiwanese Yi Xin Opera Company during the Taipei Arts Festival. A new experimental play with music, in collaboration with Li Yuan-Chen, taiwanese composer living in the U.S., « The Man with the Compound Eyes », an adaptation of Wu Ming-Yi’s novel, has been created in April 2021 at the NTT National Taichung Theater. In 2022 and 2023 he is invited as guest professor at the National Taiwan University of Arts. He prepares “Der Findling”, opera by Franz Hummel and Susan Oswell for the Bruckner-year in June 2024 in Linz, Austria, and “Disparitions”, combining Janácek’s “Diary of One Who Vanished” with three compositions by Thomas Adès, for Opéra de Massy in Paris.
