Der Standard 13th February 2004

Kathrin Zechner plans to bring domestic pop to musicals - but it doesn't want to come

Photo: © Dachstein Tourismus

Vienna - Musical director Kathrin Zechner plans well-known greats with the Ronacher theatre from 2007 (reports Der Standard). With a yearly subsidy of 18.4 million Euros from the city of Vienna, fresh wind and young people should be brought into the dusty genre there and in the Raimundtheater too.

At various press conferences last week, besides plans for a "grown up Snow White" Zechner brought several names into play which are to supply the music from the domestic pop scene. Apart from Hubert von Goisern, the unwieldy dialect minimalists Attwenger and, from the club scene, DJ producer team Kruder & Dorfmeister and Pulsinger & Tunakan were named.

A series of phone calls brought partly amazing results: For example Kathrin Zechner actually spoke to Hubert von Goisern in summer 2003. And now in Der Standard interview, Hubert von Goisern also shows readiness in principle to tackle music theatre:

"This artistic form has fascinated me for more than ten years. The material must just work. Mind you, I start wince at the concept of 'musical'. As far as Vienna is concerned anyway. Leonard Bernstein, great and beautiful. But Rainhard Fendrich and Wake Up, that's too much in the direction of Musikantenstadl for me."

Anyway, back then Zechner offered him a Mozart topic, which he "couldn't really warm to." Hubert von Goisern, still rather agitated today: "Mozart travels with a horse and carriage from Prague to Graz. In the Bohemian forest, the carriage has a broken axle. The driver rides away to get help and Mozart remains squatting in the forest. There he then meets a black female singer, who teaches him blues and soul. I said: Kathi, what's this, in the 18th century in the forest, should she play something to Mozart on the electric organ?!" But according to von Goisern, there is actually currently "a serious offer, which could become ripe for decision in one, two years. Although not in Vienna."

Christian Schachinger