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About
Sven-Eric Bechtolf (born December 13, 1957 in Darmstadt) is a German actor, theater and opera director. In the Festival Summer 2015 and 2016 he was responsible for the overall artistic planning of the Salzburg Festival.
Sven-Eric Bechtolf received his education at the Salzburg Mozarteum and later worked at renowned theaters such as. For example, the Zürcher Schauspielhaus, the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Hamburg Thalia Theater - he also worked for some time in the management of the latter.
He had his first television appearance in 1979 as a supporting actor in the three-part book A chapter in itself. In the 1980s and 1990s Bechtolf was mainly to be seen in thriller series, for example, in the Old (nine times), Derrick (five times), crime scene (twice) and in Großstadtrevier and Balko. He became known to a broad public in 1983 through the psychological thriller Deep Water - with Constanze Engelbrecht and Peter Bongartz - after the novel by Patricia Highsmith. In the series physicians he was between 1996 and 1999 as a dr. Konrad Vogt one of the main actors.
Since 1999 he has worked at the Vienna Burgtheater, where he was a member of the ensemble until 2006, and plays regularly at the Salzburg Festival, in 2007, where he played Jedermann in a double role Guter Gesell / Teufel. His repertoire is extensive and includes roles such as Leonce, Karl Moor to Othello, Robespierre and Arturo Ui. On 16 December 2005, Andrea Breth's new production of Minna von Barnhelm with Bechtolf in the role of Major Tellheim premiered at the Burgtheater.
Bechtolf collaborated with directors such as Ruth Berghaus, Andrea Breth, Benno Besson, Jürgen Flimm, Gerd Heinz, Andreas Kriegenburg, Robert Wilson, Luc Bondy and Frank-Patrick Steckel. One of his better known roles in 2000 was that of Hubert Finidori in the play Three Times Life by Yasmina Reza (directed by Luc Bondy).
After his staging of the one-person play The Construction of Franz Kafka in Bochum, in which he also played the lead role, he was engaged at the Hamburg Thalia Theater for various productions as a director: The Battle of Heiner Müller, The Dispute of Pierre Carlet de Marivaux (invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 1995), Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, from morning to midnight by Georg Kaiser and Baal by Bertolt Brecht. At the Grec Festival in Barcelona, Bechtolf Leonce and Lena directed by Georg Büchner, at the Vienna Burgtheater Reigen by Arthur Schnitzler and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.
Bechtolf also works in music theater: in 2000, the Zurich new production of Alban Berg's Lulu was his first work as an opera director. At the Vienna State Opera in December 2006, Bechtolf directed Richard Strauss' Arabella (stage design Rolf Glittenberg, costumes Marianne Glittenberg). In 2007 he also staged the same opera at the Hamburg State Opera. In 2004 he directed Pelléas et Mélisande in Zurich by Claude Debussy.
At the Opernhaus Zürich, Bechtolf staged the three Da Ponte operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between 2006 and 2009, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and the equipment was provided to the couple Rolf Glittenberg (set design) and Marianne Glittenberg (costumes). The cycle began in May 2006 with Don Giovanni, followed in 2007 by Le nozze di Figaro and graduated in 2009 with Così fan tutte. Between 2007 and 2009, the same team also designed a new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Vienna State Opera.
2011 Bechtolf became acting director of the Salzburg Festival under the director Alexander Pereira. He was considered Pereira's preferred candidate, after he has worked with him several times at the Zurich Opera House. After Pereira requested early termination of the contract in 2014 and moved to the Scala in Milan as director, the Board of Trustees of the Bechtolf Festival requested overall responsibility for the festival in 2015 and 2016.
He was married to the Swiss actress Charlotte Schwab, with whom he has a child. Since February 2016 he is married to the soprano Anett Fritsch.