Don Giovanni König Kandaules Die Zauberflöte Turandot Die Liebe der Danae Roméo et Juliette La Donna del Lago Helmut Lachenmann Jedermann Daponte in Santa Fe Das weite Land Young Directors Joachim Schlömer Concerts 2002 The Unfinished

DAS WEITE LAND
The renowned stage designer Erich Wonder creates the sets for Das weite Land

Many years ago, at the beginning of the 1970s, Luc Bondy and I were standing in front of the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. We were both still very young then and always on the lookout for new professional partners. Bondy enthused about someone I had also already met. “Erich Wonder in Bremen of course”, I said. Luc thought he was absolutely marvellous. And that is how it came about that we both started our work with him.

In the meantime I have since celebrated twenty-five years of working with Erich. In 1973 our first joint project at the Thalia Theater was Tales from the Vienna Woods.

He is different from all the other stage designers I have worked with because of the unusual perspectives he adopts. A characteristic of his sets, still evident nowadays, is that two levels have always permeated his work: a realistic observation of the present and the extension of this view into fantastic spaces. Wonder is always one step ahead of so many colleagues and a true innovator.

How many sets has he created? If we were to look at them one after the other, it would produce an almost infinite story of the aesthetic of German theatre. Now after Salome and Dr. Faustus we can look forward to Das weite Land, directed by Andrea Breth, at the Salzburg Festival but this time in a new constellation, with Wonder as stage designer and myself as director of drama at the Festival.

And afterwards I hope there will be many new projects – plays, operas, until the pencil drops from our hand. This is my wish for us both.

Jürgen Flimm

Arthur Schnitzler
Das weite Land

Landestheater

New production: 15 August 2002
16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27 August 2002
Performances begin at 7 p.m.

Ticket prices: