Hans Neuenfels

Hans Neuenfels was born in 1941 in Krefeld. He trained in acting and directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. He has staged productions at the Schauspiel Frankfurt, which he helped to shape under the direction of Peter Palitzsch, as well as in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Zurich and Vienna. From 1986 to 1990, he was the general director of the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. He has shot films about Heinrich von Kleist, Robert Musil, Jean Genet and August Strindberg. In 1994, he was awarded the Kainz Medal by the City of Vienna.

Neuenfels has directed opera since 1974. Among his last stage productions were “The Magic Flute” by Mozart (2006) and Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Komische Oper Berlin (2008), “Proserpina” by Wolfgang Rihm at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele (2009), Aribert Reimann’s “Lear” at the Komische Oper Berlin (2009), Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” at the Bayreuth Festival (2010), “Nabucco” by Verdi at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (2013) and “Ariadne auf Naxos” by Richard Strauss at the Staatsoper Berlin (2015).

Neuenfels is a member of the Akademie der Künste and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. In 1991, he published his novel “Isaakaros”, followed in 2001 by his story “Neapel oder die Reise nach Stuttgart”, and in 2011 “Das Bastardbuch: Autobiographische Stationen”, his much-acclaimed autobiography. He is married to the actress Elisabeth Trissenaar. Their son is the cameraman Benedict Neuenfels.

As of November 2015