Andrea Breth

Andrea Breth was born in Rieden im Allgäu, grew up in Darmstadt, where she also did her A-levels. Afterwards she studied German and English language and literature at the University of Heidelberg. From 1972 to 1973 assistant director at the Theater Heidelberg; first productions in Bremen, Wiesbaden, Hamburg and Berlin (including Lessing's "Emilia Galotti" at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin), at the Zürcher Schauspielakademie and at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich. From 1983 to 1985 she was engaged at the Theater in Freiburg, where she directed, among other things, Lorca's "Bernarda Alba's House", which earned her an invitation to the Berlin Theatertreffen and the "Director of the Year 1985" award from the magazine "Theater heute". From 1986 to 1989 Andrea Breth moved to the Schauspielhaus Bochum. With Julien Green's "Süden" and Gorki's "Die Letzten" she was again invited to the Theatertreffen. In 1990 and 1992, she directed Kleist's "The Broken Jug" at the Burgtheater Wien and O'Casey's "The End of the Beginning" at the Akademietheater O'Casey's, this production was also invited to the Theatertreffen. From 1992 to 1997 she was artistic director of the Berlin Schaubühne. With Wampilow's "Last Summer in Chulinsk", Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" and Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", further invitations to the Berlin Theatertreffen followed. From 1999 to 2019 Andrea Breth worked regularly at the Burgtheater Vienna. There she directed Horváth's "Der jüngste Tag", Kleist's "Das Käthchen von Heilbronn", Friedrich Schiller's "Maria Stuart", Albert Ostermaier's "Letzter Aufruf" and "Nach den Klippen", Tennessee Williams' "Die Katze auf dem heißen Blechdach", Anton Chekhov's "Der Kirschgarten" and Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm". Between 2008 and 2019, productions of Simon Stephens' "Motortown", "Quai West" by Bernard-Marie Koltès, "Zwischenfälle - Szenen von Courteline, Cami, Charms" and Kleist's "Prince Frederick of Homburg" in co-production with the Salzburg Festival, Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "This Story of Yours" by John Hopkins, Eugene O'Neill's "A Long Day's Journey into the Night" and finally "The Rats" by Gerhart Hauptmann. With Lessing's "Emilia Galotti" and Schiller's "Don Carlos, Infante of Spain" she was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. At the Salzburg Festival, Andrea Breth staged Schnitzler's "Das weite Land" and "Verbrechen und Strafe" by Fyodor Dostoevsky in a separate version. She also directed Albert Ostermaier's "Blaue Spiegel" (2009) and Kleist's "Der zerbrochne Krug" at the Berliner Ensemble at the Ruhrtriennale; in 2011 Isaak Babel's "Marija" at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, in 2013 Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borkman" at the Schauspiel Frankfurt and in 2014 Pinter's "Der Hausmeister" at the Residenztheater in Munich. Andrea Breth has been directing for the opera since 2000: Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" at the Leipzig Opera, Smetana's "The Bartered Bride" and Wolfgang Rihm's "Jakob Lenz" at the Stuttgart State Opera, Bizet's "Carmen" at the Styriarte in Graz, at the Salzburg Festival "Eugen Onegin", Janáčeks "Katja Kabanowa" and "La traviata" at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels as well as Prokofiev's "The Gambler", Verdi's "Macbeth" and Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam. At the Vienna Festival 2015 she staged "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" by Béla Bartók combined with the "Ghost Variations" by Robert Schumann. For the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin she staged "Wozzeck" and "Lulu" by Alban Berg as well as "Medea" by Luigi Cherubini. For the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Festival Aix-en-Provence she created "The Prisoner" by Luigi Dallapiccola combined with "The Enclosure" by Wolfgang Rihm. Andrea Breth has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Franck Ollu and Ingo Metzmacher and has received numerous awards, including the Nestroy Theatre Prize in 2003 for "Emilia Galotti" in the category of Best Director, in 2011 for "Zwischenfälle" and in 2016 for John Hopkins "Diese Geschichte von Ihnen". She also received the Theater Prize of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung Berlin in 2006, the Schiller Prize of the City of Marbach in 2015 and the Pour le Mérite for Science and Art in 2018. Andrea Breth was professor of directing at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" in Berlin and is a member of the Akademie der Darstellenden Künste in Frankfurt am Main, the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste. She is also a bearer of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st Class, the Small and the Large Federal Cross of Merit and the Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019 she received the Nestroy Theater Prize for her life's work.