Peter Stein - German theater director: biography, personal life, creativity

Peter Stein is a director, known for his classic direction in theatrical art, decorated with notes of bold avant-garde and his own interpretations. Under his strict guidance, dozens of complex magnificent performances were staged in various major cities around the world, including Russia.

What is the biography of Peter Stein - this talented creative person who has found boundless happiness and joy in active and fruitful work? What are his most interesting projects and how do they deserve the attention of modern viewers? Let's find out.

Happy childhood

Despite the fact that Peter Stein was born in 1937 in the capital of Germany, he does not remember the war years well. Hard time left almost no trace in his memories. Although the prosperity of fascism was alarming in his little soul, Peter Stein still considers his childhood and youth to be happy and joyful.

Parents of the future director had a positive impact on him. A mother engaged in sculpting in her youth instilled a love of art, and a father working as an engineer not only at home but also abroad (even in Russia) introduced his son to the technologies of Russian scientists and encouraged him to show respect for this country.

Getting an education

In imitation of his father, young Peter began to get involved in technology, but at the university he studied philosophy and German art. He did not receive a specialized education in order to begin to prove himself in the theatrical field, but immediately after graduation he began to work in the theater, helping in the production of various plays and performances. He was then twenty-seven years old.

The first independent work

They turned out the productions of “Cunning and Love” (according to Schiller) and “Torquato Tasso” (according to Goethe), which were presented to the public of Bremen in 1967.

These works are very remarkable and interesting, since even then they reflected Stein's orientation as a director. He sought not only to accurately convey the work of the classic, but also to erase the boundaries between the past tense (when the work was written) and the present (when the performance was staged).

As many critics and censors have noted, it was in “Cunning and Love” that Stein was able to prove that the mistakes of the past must be learned.

Exposing the social and political problems of his time, the aspiring director tried to show that all this is the result of inaccurate and scarce information about the aesthetic and moral events of the past.

The position of the head of the theater

Such progressive views caused discontent among some of the directors and actors of Bremen, with whom Peter Stein had a lot of controversy and debate. Therefore, when he was offered the place of artistic director of one of the theaters in West Berlin, the young director replied with joyful agreement. Four other actors from the Bremen troupe left with him.

In “Shaubyun” (the name of the theater in which Stein began to serve), he staged innovative, highly successful performances. First of all, it is “Per Gunt” (Ibsen), “Mother” (Brecht), “Optimistic tragedy” (Vishnevsky) and many others.

It is noteworthy that Peter Stein treated his subordinates in a special way. In matters of productions, repertoire, technical solutions, and so on, he took into account the opinions and considerations of the entire creative team, as well as, which is a rarity, of maintenance personnel. Such a policy was successful, which nevertheless did not save the director from ill-wishers and dissenters.

The focus of creativity

The performances of Peter Stein enjoyed tremendous success due to his innovative experiments in the avant-garde style. Preferring the classics, the ancient tragedies of Shakespeare and Chekhov, he presented well-known productions as something new, unforgettable, enchanting, from which the audience was interrupted by breath and breathtaking.

Many still remember Peter Stein's Oresteia, written by Aeschylus and directed by the director in 1979. The audience was impressed by the scene of the murder of Clytemnestra, when the heroine was lying on the stage on the surgical table, there were tubes and hoses near her, blood flowed through them, and an ancient text was read behind the curtains. One can only imagine how at that time such productions were considered bold and advanced.

Despite such shocking, in his performances Peter Stein masterfully conveys the idea of ​​the whole work and the inner world of each hero. Working on the smallest details, delving into the subtleties of musical accompaniment and the transmission of chiaroscuro, he tries to put into the production all the depth and realism that he understands.

The director is equally talented in working with both classical works and contemporary authors.

Stein and Russian art

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is one of the favorite authors of the German director. For his work, he many times put on various stages, both domestic and foreign, the works of this writer. For example, at different times, he showed the audience “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard” (in Shaubyun), “The Seagull” (in Riga) and so on.

Peter Stein believes that the images of Chekhov’s characters are still relevant in our modern world. In his work, he is not going to vulgarize or vulgarize them, no! The director is trying to literally convey to the present audience Chekhov’s traditions, his way of thinking and principles. And then people will see that the classics are still relevant, all the same modern and interesting. For this, it is only necessary to stage the play correctly and naturally present it to the public.

In his directorial work, Stein relies on the principles of yet another great Russian man - Stanislavsky, whose style he imitates not only in the production of works, but also in his work with the theater team.

Performances in Russia

Since 1989, Peter Stein becomes an international director. He actively works in different countries, including Russia.

The first production staged in Chekhov’s homeland was the play “Three Sisters”. And although the actors were Germans and spoke German, they conveyed the feelings of their heroes so vividly and realistically that it seemed to the audience that they were hearing native speech. They say that in the eyes of the main actresses there were tears when they uttered their stage remarks.

The next performance was staged two years later, in 1991. It was also the dramaturgy of Anton Pavlovich, presented in the play “The Cherry Orchard”, in which Peter Stein tried to convey to the audience an important idea: the focus of the story is not a man, but his conflict with himself and nature.

In 1994, the German director staged another play in Moscow - “Oresteia”, and this, despite the tragic incidents in the Russian Federation, which could cool the desire of a foreign citizen to be in the capital during this period. Nevertheless, Stein got to work and presented an enthusiastic audience with an eight-hour performance with the participation of such talented eminent actors as E. Vasiliev, L. Chursina, T. Dogileva, E. Mironov, I. Kostolevsky.

This was followed by no less vivid and talented productions, such as “Hamlet” with E. Mironov in the title role, “Aida”, “Condemnation of Faust”, “Boris Godunov”. Peter Stein, in the last of these productions, distinctively and deeply depicted both the Russian Tsar himself and the complexity and tragedy of the events of that time. According to the director himself, his main goal was not to show a love story, but the history of the Russian people, the political and social world of old Russia.

For his great contribution to Russian theater, the German director was awarded the honorary Order of Friendship.

Other areas of creativity

Since the 1980s, Peter Stein tried himself not only in drama, but also in the production of opera performances. For example, according to numerous reviews, he delivered the best opera interpretation of The Ring of the Nibelungs (according to Wagner). He later worked as a director at the Wales Opera and Ballet Theater.

“Faust” in the original

In 2000, specially for the international exhibition EXPO, Peter Stein staged the full version of Goethe's Faust. The performance went on the stage of Hanover for more than twenty hours. About forty actors were involved in it.

The audience was impressed by the verbatim and accuracy of the performance according to the original. Later, similar shows were held in Austrian Vienna and German Berlin.

Personal life of Peter Stein

The German director is a person who does not like to share the details of his intimate life. Despite his venerable age, he is still slim, neat, gallant.

The director’s wife, Maddalena Cripa, an Italian actress, lives near Rome in a rich and beautiful villa. Spouses who have been married since 1999 spend all their free time together.

Now Peter Stein is eighty years old. But he is not going to retire or otherwise reduce his creative activity. The director is still active, full of strength and energy, enthusiasm and new ideas. Peter Stein travels freely around the world, communicates with different people, sets up his talented projects and, as before, is not afraid to experiment.

Soon he will again delight us with new, incredibly interesting and exciting productions and performances. Perhaps even on the stage of our homeland. Look forward to!