Artistic & Technical
Production Manager
I love theater; not just the actual performance on the many stages of this world, but especially all the ‘theater’ behind the scenes. I thoroughly enjoy that special moment with each of my productions when we reach the point of no return. The doors are about to open to the audience, the curtain is waiting to be flown out, the lights are dimming, and everyone on stage can focus on their performance and not worry about anything else. That's when the many people in the wings have done an excellent job!
It's great fun, and I now have a lot of experience in coordinating the "madness" behind the scenes. For me, there's only one goal: to facilitate the implementation of the creative vision; with enthusiasm, strive for perfection, room for improvisation, an eye for health & safety and without breaking the bank!
It would be my pleasure to take on one or more of the following tasks:
Liaison/conduit between Producer/Management, Creatives, Artists, Agencies, and Technical Departments.
Production and rehearsal scheduling.
Identification and selection of potential partners (creatives, suppliers,..)
Budgeting and budget supervision
Organization and logistics
Personnel planning, recruitment and training
Contract negotiations, administration, and execution (artists, technical and partners, Union and Non-Union)
Co-Production negotiations, coordination advancing, and administration (from concept to completion).
Production Consulting
Company Management
Location Management
Tour and On-site Management
and all the other things that you are on your mind, and I can provide with my extensive international network.
WORLD PREMIERE OPERA IN EGYPT -
PRODUCTION DIRECTION & SCENERY CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION
For a super exciting opera project that will be premiered in Egypt, we have been driving the planning and preparations with the producers and the directing team since spring 2021. We - together with our international network - take care of the collaboration with set and costume designers as well as their artistic submissions, the technical drawings, supplier evaluation, construction awards, production processes, production meetings, staff and rehearsal planning, budgeting, and budget monitoring, recruitment and training of production staff and at the moment mainly the scheduled artistic and technical execution of the set construction. To date, the "Les Troyens" production that Daniel oversaw on the San Francisco Opera stage was our largest realized production. Now Egypt is superseding it at the top with 36 containers of scenery.
WORLD PREMIERE OF THE OPERA “170 DAYS IN NANKING” &
OPENING OF THE jiangsu center for the performing Arts
When the producer called, there were about three months left until the premiere. Three months. Unfathomable, nothing was prepared, let alone built. Nada. No set, no props, no costumes, no production schedule, no rehearsal schedule, and so forth. Ah, and the main stage of the auditorium had not yet been turned over to the client so that staff training couldn't take place, the machinery couldn't be used, you name it. You don't experience a situation like that every day; thus I accepted the offer. I could assemble a team of local experts, who worked their butts off to prepare bid documents, make drawings, visit potential builders, recruit staff and train people on the job. It was a spectacularly wild ride, but we made it. We pulled it off in only three months, and everyone was pulling together to get this production up and running.
Nominated for the International Opera Award
More pictures and informationen
Music: Tang Jianping; Libretto: Zhou Ke; Conductor: Lü Jia; Production: Elijah Moshinsky; Stage Director & Lighting Design: Nigel Levings; Set Design: Wang Jing; Costume Design: Simon Holdsworth; Projection Design: Tal Yarden & Mikaela Liakata; Choreography: Yin Mei; Assistant Directors: Derek Walker, Marie Steiner; House Producer: Bian Chao
LES TROYENS @ SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
“Les Troyens” by Hector Berlioz is a monster of an opera. It’s actually more like two operas in one. Each act is long enough to stand by itself, and the environments each of the acts require are distinctly different. Our production was big and an outright challenge to fit on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. That’s what makes it so unique. We bring visionary artistic concepts to life and take the audience on a trip to fantasy and dream worlds. Our show (watch highlights here) with all of its sets, props and costumes at the San Francisco Opera traveled in 16 HC shipping containers from our co-producer, the Royal Opera House Covet Garden to the Port of Oakland. We unloaded and inspected everything, hauled the parts that required repair, altering or touching-up to our scenery and costume shops and gave the props a good makeover. For the stage to hold the weight of the big set pieces, the crew covered the stage floor with plywood, which also helped with the manual movement of the big scenery trucks a vista. The team did a magnificent job preparing and running this show.
Music Director: Donald Runnicles, Production: David McVicar, Director: Leah Hausman, Set Design: Es Devlin, Costume Design: Moritz Junge, Original Lighting Design: Wolfgang Göbbel, Lighting Design: Pia Virolainen Chorus Master: Ian Robertson, Choreographer: Lynne Page, Fight Director: Dave Maier, Associate Choreographer: Gemma Payne
Co-Production between: San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala & Wiener Staatsoper
“DREAM of the red chamber” China Tour
This tour was exceptional in the world of opera. Because only one in I don’t know how many new works produced in the West get the chance for additional exposure in Asia directly after its premiere. “Dream of The Red Chamber” was commissioned by San Francisco Opera and the Chinese Heritage Foundation immediately went on tour. Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang created an opera that was shown at the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) and then went on to be taken on tour through China by Armstrong Music & Arts International.
I had the privilege to accompany the creation process from (almost) day one, attended the first workshop at HKUST and all creative team meetings, looked after the build and completion in San Francisco, was invited to Hong Kong with the production in March 2017 for rehearsals and performances at HKAF and was than asked by Wray Armstrong and Evita Zhang to take on the role as Production Director for the China tour. We rehearsed in Tangshan and then subsequently performed at the Poly Theatre in Beijing, the brand new Meixihu International Culture and Arts Center in Changsha and the Qintai Grand Theater in Wuhan where the show was also live broadcast on local television.
Music & Music Director: Bright Sheng; Libretto: David Henry Hwang & Bright Sheng; Director: Stan Lai; Production Design: Tim Yip; Licht: Wang Tien Hung, Choreographie: Ran Arthur Braun, Regieassistenz: Reed Fisher
“ANDREA CHÉNIER” – Bregenzer Festspiele
Künstlerisch sicher eine der erfolgreichsten Produktionen während meiner Zeit als künstlerischer Produktionsleiter und Company Manager bei den Bregenzer Festspielen. Keith Warner (Regie), David Fielding (Bühne) und Constance Hoffman (Kostüme) haben es verstanden diese eher unbekannte Oper in großes Kino auf dem See umzuwandeln. Gepaart mit guten Sängerinnen und Sängern, Stunt-Leuten, Artisten, Chor, Statisten und Orchester erlebten zehntausende von Besuchern allabendlich die französische Revolution erneut.
Music Director: Ulf Schirmer
FLASHMOB “Wir sind Europa” in Dornbirn
“Abschließend noch einmal herzlichen Dank, denn ohne Ihr großes Engagement und Ihre Begeisterung wäre diese Aktion nicht möglich gewesen.”
— DR. MICHAEL GRAHAMMER, VIZEPRÄSIDENT DER WIRTSCHAFTSKAMMER VORARLBERG