Ellen Hammer

Biography

Dramaturgy Born in Munich, where she studied literature and theatre history. From 1967 to 1970 she worked as assistant director and dramaturge at Munich’s Kammerspiele, between 1970 and 1978 at Berlin’s Schaubühne, where she began collaborating with Peter Stein and Klaus Michael Grüber. The productions she has directed include Ernst Jandl’s Aus der Fremde (Schaubühne, 1980), Heiner Müller’s Quartett and Philoktet (Bonn), Ödön von Horváth’s Eine Unbekannte aus der Seine (Piccolo Teatro, Milan), Camus’s Caligula and Shakespeare’s Richard II (Graz). Since 1987 she has co-operated as a dramaturge with Robert Wilson. The productions they have created together are: Alcestis after Euripides (H. Müller, R. Wilson), King Lear (W. Shakespeare), Swan Song (A. P. Chekhov), Die Zauberflöte (W. A. Mozart, Opéra National de Paris), Les Fables (J. de La Fontaine, Comédie Française), the ballet Le martyre de Saint Sébastien (C. Debussy, Opéra National de Paris), St John Passion (J. S. Bach, Théatre du Châtelet). The productions she has worked on with K. M. Grüber include Wagner’s Parsifal, Verdi’s Otello and Aida (Amsterdam), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Aix-en-Provence, 1999), Janáček’s opera From the House of the Dead (Salzburger Festspiele, Opéra Bastille de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid), Wagner´s Tannhäuser (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Janáček´s The Diary of One who Disappeared (Festival of Vienna), Strauss’s Elektra (Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Teatro la Fenice in Venice), Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Ruhrtriennale), Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Shostakovich’s Katerina Izmailova, Janáček’s The Makropulos Case and Busoni’s Doktor Faust (Zurich). After Grüber’s death in 2008 she implemented their production of Verdi’s La traviata (Lyon, 2009). In 2009 she collaborated with Anselm Kiefer on the production Am Anfang, staged to mark the 20th anniversary of the Opéra Bastille in Paris.