Leininger, Claus

Artistic Director

Born: 17.01.1931 in Mannheim

died: 22.02.2005 in Wiesbaden

Leininger began as an actor and assistant director in his home town of Mannheim, moved to Tübingen, Göttingen, then to Freiburg im Breisgau, where he also staged operas, and to Essen. In 1974, he returned to the Nationaltheater Mannheim as director of drama. In 1977 he became general director of the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen and in 1986 director of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

Here he no longer staged productions himself so that he could concentrate fully on his management duties. He unobtrusively set new accents without announcing them programmatically and without particularly advertising them. His ambitious repertoire was nevertheless well received. It included world premieres and new plays such as Gerd Kühr's "Stallerhof" and Antonio Bibalo's "Ghosts" in opera and Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" in drama. There were rarely performed operas such as "Der rasende Roland" by Haydn, "Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin" by Franz Schreker and Massenet's "Werther" as well as dramas such as Arnolt Bronnen's "Vatermord" and Georg Kaiser's "Kanzlist Krehler". Leininger brought Carla Henius with him from Gelsenkirchen, who set up a music theater workshop for contemporary music, as she did in the Ruhr region. He appointed Annegret Ritzel as acting director and Ben van Cauwenbergh as ballet director, who remained in Wiesbaden until 2007.

Leininger introduced the Youth Club Theater, in which talented young people between the ages of 15 and 28 can perform theater themselves; the performances, preferably musicals, are included in the repertoire. At the International May Festival, he strengthened the drama department and the inexpensive and experimental program in the Kleines Haus. He characterized the Wiesbaden audience as "greedy" and wanted to make them curious.

In 1994, Leininger resigned from his position due to illness. He remained in Wiesbaden and continued to enrich cultural life with photo exhibitions and recitals. In 1994, he was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse and was made an honorary member of the Staatstheater in 1995. He was buried in the Südfriedhof c emetery.