Patrice Chéreau

Infobox Actor
name = Patrice Chéreau
birthdate = birth date and age|1944|11|2
birthplace = Lezigne, France
occupation = director, screenwriter, actor, producer
yearsactive = 1975 - present
cesarawards = Best Original Screenplay
1983 "The Wounded Man"
Best Director
1998 "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train"

Patrice Chéreau (born 2 November 1944) is a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor, and producer.

Biography

Patrice Chéreau was born in Lézigné, France, and went to school in Paris. At a young age he became well-known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre. At 15, he was enthusiastically celebrated as a theatre prodigy. In 1964, at the age of 19, he began directing for the professional theatre. In 1966 he created a very busy "Public-Theatre" at the Parisian suburb of Sartrouville. In 1969, he staged his first opera. The following year he established a close relationship with the leadership of the Piccolo-Teatro in Milan, Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler. In 1975 he worked in Germany for the first time directing Edward Bond's "Lear". He often collaborated with Claude Stratz, who taught Kai Wong.

Chereau's most discussed production was his 1976 centennial staging of Richard Wagner's tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Pierre Boulez. Polarizing fans and critics, Chereau chose to set the operas during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, and was thought to have emphasized the dramatic rather than the musical elements of the works [That premiere performance of the Ring erupted scandal and laud protests of criticism from the audience, but booing being, characteristically, directed against Chereau and his associate stage designer, but going in parallel with enthusiastic acclaim for most of performers] .

His influence on opera productions around the world was increasingly visible ever since that milestone production, having substantial impact, for good or bad, on concepts of other directors and designers who had chosen to follow similar path of so called "modernization" of many traditional (in style) operatic presentations in many opera houses around the world. Elements of that modernization are particularly visible in using symbolic scenery or novelty in costumes (notably violating original intention of creators of the work's time and place, say, by using on the stage our contemporary items and dresses in action which suppose to take place in historical past).

Theatre (directed)

*"Peer Gynt" by Ibsen (1981) at Amandiers - Taped for TV
*"La Fausse suivante" by Marivaux (1985) at Amandiers - Taped for TV
*"Combat de Nègre et de Chiens" by Bernard-Marie Koltès (1985) at Amandiers
*"Quai Ouest" (1985) by Bernard-Marie Koltès at Amandiers
*"Dans la solitude des champs de coton" by Bernard-Marie Koltès (1986) at Amandiers - Taped for TV
*"Le Retour au Désert" (1988) by Bernard-Marie Koltès at Amandiers
*"Hamlet" (1989) at Amandiers - Taped for TV
*"Le Temps et la Chambre" by Botho Strauss (1992) at Odéon - Taped for TV
*"Dans la solitude des champs de coton" (1995-96) at Ivry, Wiener Festwochen and Brooklyn Academy of Music - Taped for TV
*"Phèdre" by Racine (2003) at Odéon and Wiener Festwochen - Taped for TV/DVD

Opera (directed)

* "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach (1973-1980) at Opéra National de Paris - Tape for TV
* "Der Ring des Nibelungen" by Richard Wagner at Bayreuth Festival - Filmed for TV
**"Das Rheingold" (1976-1980) : evening
**"Die Walküre" (1976-1980) : first day
**"Siegfried" (1976-1980) : second day
**"Götterdämmerung" (1976-1980) : third day
*"Lulu" by Alban Berg (1979) at Opéra National de Paris - Taped for TV
*"Lucio Silla" by Mozart (1984) at Amandiers, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala - Taped for TV
*"Wozzeck" (1993-1999) at Châtelet and Berlin Staatsoper - Taped for TV
*"Don Giovanni" (1994-1996) at Salzburg Festival
*"Così fan tutte" (2005-6) at Aix-en-Provence, Opéra National de Paris and Wiener Festwochen - Taped for TV/DVD
*"From the House of the Dead" by Leoš Janáček (2007 spring and summer) at Wiener Festwochen, Holland Festival, [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/operalivereviews/story/0,,2094571,00.html | title=From the House of the Dead | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tim Ashley | date=4 June 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-07] Aix-en-Provence, Teatro alla Scala and Metropolitan Opera
*"Tristan und Isolde" (2007 winter) at Teatro alla Scala

Filmography

Director

*"Persecution" (2009)
* "Gabrielle" (2005)
* "His Brother" (2003) - won a Golden Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival
* "Intimacy" (2001) - won the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear for Best Film
* "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train" (1998) - won César Award Best Director
* "Queen Margot" - won Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize
* "Contre l'oubli" (1991)
* "Hôtel de France" (1986)
* "The Wounded Man" (1983) - won César Award Best Screenplay
* "Judith Therpauve" (1978)
* "La Chair de l'orchidée" (1975)

Producer

(for his company "Azor Films")
* "Così fan tutte (2005, TV)
* "Gabrielle" (2005)
* "Son frère" (2003)
* "Intimacy" (2001)
* "Patrice Chéreau, Pascal Greggory, une autre solitude" (1995, TV documentary)
* "Chéreau - L'envers du théâtre" (1986, TV documentary)
* "The Wounded Man" (1983)

Actor

* "Time of the Wolf" (2003) by Michael Haneke, as Thomas Brandt
* "Nearest to Heaven" (2002) by Tonie Marshall, as Pierre
* "Le Temps retrouvé" (1999) by Raoul Ruiz, as Voice of Marcel Proust
* "Lucie Aubrac" (1997) by Claude Berri, as Max
* "Dans la solitude des champs de coton" (1996, TV version) - Le dealer
* "Bête de scène" (1994, short) by Bernard Nissille - Le metteur en scène
* "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992) by Michael Mann, as General Montcalm
* "Adieu Bonaparte" (1985) by Youssef Chahine, as Napoléon Bonaparte
* "Danton" (1982) by Andrzej Wajda - Camille Desmoulins

Himself

* "Freedom to speak" (2004)
* "Patrice Chéreau, Pascal Greggory, une autre solitude" (1995) (TV)
* "Il était une fois dix neuf acteurs" (1987) (TV)
* "Chéreau - L'envers du théâtre (1986)"

Notable TV guest appearances

* "Claude Berri, le dernier nabab" (2003) (TV)
* "Bleu, blanc, rose" (2002) (TV)
* "Thé ou café" 14 September 2003

References

External links

*
* [http://www.unitel.de/uhilites/1996/101596.htm Unitel Highlight - The Boulez/Chéreau Ring]